The Dain Curse (First Edition)
by Dashiell Hammett
- Used
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
About Good lacking the dust jacket. Binding square, but with soiling and some spotting/staining to the boards; fore-edges chipped on a few pages, and droplet stains on a few of the internal pages.
Layman A2.
Synopsis
Dashiell Samuel Hammett was born in St. Mary’s County. He grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Hammett left school at the age of fourteen and held several kinds of jobs thereafter—messenger boy, newsboy, clerk, operator, and stevedore, finally becoming an operative for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. Sleuthing suited young Hammett, but World War I intervened, interrupting his work and injuring his health. When Sergeant Hammett was discharged from the last of several hospitals, he resumed detective work. He soon turned to writing, and in the late 1920s Hammett became the unquestioned master of detective-story fiction in America. In The Maltese Falcon (1930) he first introduced his famous private eye, Sam Spade. The Thin Man (1932) offered another immortal sleuth, Nick Charles. Red Harvest (1929), The Dain Curse (1929), and The Glass Key (1931) are among his most successful novels. During World War II, Hammett again served as sergeant in the Army, this time for more than two years, most of which he spent in the Aleutians. Hammett’s later life was marked in part by ill health, alcoholism, a period of imprisonment related to his alleged membership in the Communist Party, and by his long-time companion, the author Lillian Hellman, with whom he had a very volatile relationship. His attempt at autobiographical fiction survives in the story “Tulip,” which is contained in the posthumous collection The Big Knockover (1966, edited by Lillian Hellman). Another volume of his stories, The Continental Op (1974, edited by Stephen Marcus), introduced the final Hammett character: the “Op,” a nameless detective (or “operative”) who displays little of his personality, making him a classic tough guy in the hard-boiled mold—a bit like Hammett himself.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Royal Books, Inc. (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 145616
- Title
- The Dain Curse (First Edition)
- Author
- Dashiell Hammett
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1930
- Keywords
- Mystery and Crime | Hard-boiled Crime Fiction | Books into Film
- Bookseller catalogs
- Books into Film; Hard-boiled Crime Fiction; Mystery and Crime;
Terms of Sale
Royal Books, Inc.
If you have questions about a book, feel free to call us anytime at 410-366-7329. Mailing address: Royal Books / 32 West 25th Street / Baltimore, MD / 21218. We accept VISA/MC/AMEX/DISCOVER, check or money order, and PayPal (ID is mail@royalbooks.com).
All books noted as First Editions are also First Printings unless indicated otherwise. All books are guaranteed to be as described, and may be returned at any time for any reason for a full refund, including return postage. Libraries, institutions, and accredited dealers can be sent books with invoice.About the Seller
Royal Books, Inc.
About Royal Books, Inc.
www.royalbooks.com
We are an open shop located in the midtown section of Baltimore. Check our website for directions if you are coming through the Baltimore area. We are open 10AM-6PM EST, Monday through Friday. You may email an order at any time, 24 hours a day.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...