Nightmare Town.
by HAMMETT, Dashiell
- Used
- Condition
- Light use to front wrapper; an attractive copy.
- Seller
-
Rochester, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York:: Dell Publishing,, [1948].. publisher's wrappers illustrated in color.. Light use to front wrapper; an attractive copy. . 12mo,. With an introduction by Ellery Queen.
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
- Jeffrey H. Marks Rare Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 60555
- Title
- Nightmare Town.
- Author
- HAMMETT, Dashiell
- Format/Binding
- Publisher's wrappers illustrated in color.
- Book Condition
- Used - Light use to front wrapper; an attractive copy.
- Publisher
- Dell Publishing,
- Place of Publication
- New York:
- Date Published
- [1948].
- Pages
- 190 [2] pp.
- Size
- 12mo,
Terms of Sale
Jeffrey H. Marks Rare Books
All books are returnable within ten days if returned in the same condition as sent. New York residents please add 8% sales tax. All items guaranteed. Members ABAA, ILAB.
About the Seller
Jeffrey H. Marks Rare Books
Biblio member since 2005
Rochester, New York
About Jeffrey H. Marks Rare Books
Specializing in modern first editions since 1978. Fine and rare books in all fields.
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