The Continental OP
by Hammett, Dashiell; Dashiell Hammett (Author) Steven Marcus(Editing and Introduction)
- Used
- very good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 039472013X
- ISBN 13
- 9780394720135
- Seller
-
The Bronx, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
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
- gearbooks (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 5vHd0035
- Title
- The Continental OP
- Author
- Hammett, Dashiell; Dashiell Hammett (Author) Steven Marcus(Editing and Introduction)
- Format/Binding
- Mass Market Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 039472013X
- ISBN 13
- 9780394720135
- Publisher
- Vintage Books/ A Diviosion of Random House
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1975
- Keywords
- Fictional Crime, Mystery, Adult Fiction
- Size
- 12mo or 12° (Duodecimo): 6¾" x 7¾" tall
Terms of Sale
gearbooks
About the Seller
gearbooks
About gearbooks
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Mass Market
- Mass market paperback books, or MMPBs, are printed for large audiences cheaply. This means that they are smaller, usually 4...
- 12mo
- A duodecimo is a book approximately 7 by 4.5 inches in size, or similar in size to a contemporary mass market paperback. Also...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Crisp
- A term often used to indicate a book's new-like condition. Indicates that the hinges are not loosened. A book described as crisp...