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RED HARVEST
by Hammett, Dashiell
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Previous owner name in ink to front free endpaper, small light stains to margins of first several text pages, some rubs and a sm
- Seller
-
Laurel, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1929. First edition. Previous owner name in ink to front free endpaper, small light stains to margins of first several text pages, some rubs and a small stain to rear cover, a very good or somewhat better copy. No dust jacket. (19129). Octavo, pp. [1-12] [1-3] 4-270 [271: publisher's data] [272-276: blank] original red cloth, front stamped in yellow and black, spine stamped in yellow and black. Author's first novel, featuring his Continental Op character, one of the earliest and most important contributions to the establishment of the hard boiled detective. "Taken as a whole, and chronologically, the novels may be seen to speculate on the way a man should deal with disorder, on the things to which he should give his allegiance. In Red Harvest, the Continental Op is motivated by what appears to be a work ethic. He finds Personville corrupt and he cleans it up for no better reason than it's his job..." - St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers (Fourth Edition), pp. 478-79. Layman A1.1.a.
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
- John W. Knott, Jr., Bookseller, ABAA/ILAB
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 19129
- Title
- RED HARVEST
- Author
- Hammett, Dashiell
- Book Condition
- Used - Previous owner name in ink to front free endpaper, small light stains to margins of first several text pages, some rubs and a sm
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1929
- Keywords
- Mystery
Terms of Sale
John W. Knott, Jr., Bookseller, ABAA/ILAB
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives mis-described or damaged.
About the Seller
John W. Knott, Jr., Bookseller, ABAA/ILAB
Biblio member since 2017
Laurel, Maryland
About John W. Knott, Jr., Bookseller, ABAA/ILAB
John W. Knott, Jr., BooksellerABAA/ILABFine First Editions
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- 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...
- 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....
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