Lost Stories (The Ace Performer Collection series) - Hardcover

Hammett, Dashiell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0972589813 ISBN 13: 9780972589819

Publisher: Vince Emery Productions, 2005

Synopsis

Dashiell Hammett, the creator of Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man, was one of the 20th century’s most influential and entertaining authors. Even so, many of Hammett’s stories—including some of his best—have been out of the reach of anyone but a handful of scholars and collectors, until now. This essential compendium rescues 21 long-lost Hammett stories, all either never collected in an anthology or unavailable for decades. These stories appear nowhere else, and represent a variety of styles from the famous mysterysmith: his first detective fiction, humorous satires, adventure yarns, a sensitive autobiographical piece, and a Thin Man story told with photos. In addition, all stories have been restored to their original versions, replacing often wholesale cuttings with the original text for the first time. To round out this celebration of Hammett, three-time Edgar Award–winner Joe Gores has written an introduction describing how Hammett influenced literature, movies, television, and Gores’ own life.

About this title

About the Author

Dashiell Hammett was the creator of Sam Spade and the author of The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man. He was a Pinkerton's detective, an advertising man, a soldier in the U.S. Army during both World Wars, an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, a political activist, and a prolific short story writer. Joe Gores is a writer of novels, short stories, and screenplays, and the recipient of three Edgar Awards. He has written scripts for Kojak, Columbo, Magnum P. I., Remington Steele, and other television series. He is a past president of the Mystery Writers of America. Gores' popular novels and stories about the detective firm Daniel Kearney Associates are based on his own 12 years of experience as a San Francisco private eye. He lives in Fairfax, California.

From the Back Cover

From the creator of Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man

Dashiell Hammett
Lost Stories

21 long-lost stories never before collected or unavailable for decades

Until now many Hammett stories - including some of his best - have been out of the reach of anyone but a handful of scholars and collectors. Lost Stories rescues 21 long-unavailable Hammett stories, from the first fiction he wrote to his last. All stories are restoried to their original versions for the first time. Each is presented with an explanation of how Hammett's life shaped his story and how the story fit in his life.

A Featured Alternate Selection of the Mystery Guild book club

A Featured Alternate Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club

Introduction by 3-time Edgar Award winner Joe Gores

Otto Penzler, New York Sun: "A hugely important book. It belongs on the shelf of every detective fiction reader and collector."

Raymond Chandler: "Hammett was the ace performer ... He did over and over again what only the best writers ever do at all."

Dorothy Parker, The New Yorker: "Dashiell Hammett is as American as a sawed-off shotgun ... he is so hard-boiled you could roll him on the White House lawn."

Gertrude Stein: "Hammett is one of the best contemporary writers."

Anthony Boucher, New York Times Book Review: It is impossible to overstate the importance of Dashiell Hammett to the American detective story (or, I believe, to American literature)."

Vanity Fair: "The smartest, liveliest, and most literate detective story writer in America."

Ellery Queen: "The most important modern originator in the mystery field, giving us the first 100 per cent American, the first truly native, detective story, thus founding a school whose influence was, is and will continue to be colossal, not only among mystery writers but among all writers."

Sinclair Lewis: "Hammett is undoubtedly the best of American detective story writers."

Kenneth Rexroth: "It is from Chandler and Hammett and Hemingway that the best modern fiction derives."

From the Inside Flap

Dashiell Hammett, the bestselling creator of Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man, was one of the America s most entertaining authors, and one of its most influential. Even so, many of Hammett s stories including some of his best have been out of the reach of anyone but a handful of scholars and collectors until now.

Lost Stories rescues 21 long-lost Hammett stories, all either never published in an anthology or unavailable for decades. Stories range from the first fiction Hammett ever wrote to his last. All stories have been restored to their original versions, replacing often-wholesale cuts with the original text for the first time.

Readers of Hammett's famous mysteries will be surprised by the variety of stories here. They include Hammett's first detective fiction, humorous satires, adventure yarns, a sensitive autobiographical piece, and a tale Ellery Queen promises "is one of the most startling stories you have ever read."

For each story, Hammett researcher Vince Emery tells how Hammett s life shaped the story and how the story affected his life. Emery s comments reveal surprises about Hammett s life not covered in any other book.

To round out this celebration of Hammett, three-time Edgar Award winner Joe Gores has written an introduction describing how Hammett influenced literature, movies, television, and Gores own life.

Lost Stories is the first title in The Ace Performer Collection, a new series of books by and about Dashiell Hammett, crowned "the ace performer" by his disciple Raymond Chandler.

Dashiell Hammett was one of the world's most popular and influential writers. Widely known as the best-selling creator of Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man, Hammett was also a Pinkerton's detective, an advertising man, a soldier in the U.S. Army during both World Wars, an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, a political activist, and a short story writer.

Joe Gores worked as a logger, a carnival roustabout, a teacher at a boys' school in Kenya, and for twelve years, a detective. Gores' popular novels and stories about Daniel Kearney Associates are based on his own experiences as a San Francisco private eye. As a writer of novels, short stories, and screnplays, Gores won three Edgar Awards and was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. He has written scripts for Kojak, Columbo, Magnum P.I., Mike Hammer, Remington Steele, and other television series. Francis Ford Coppola produced a movie based on Gores' novel Hammett.

Vince Emery wrote the bestseller How to Grow Your Business on the Internet and started publishing company Peer-to-Peer Communications. He has contributed research and articles to several books about Dashiell Hammett.

Reviews

Diehard fans of hard-boiled king Dashiell Hammett have craved a collection like this for decades, gathering fiction currently unavailable in book form, plus a handful of tales never reprinted anywhere. Period illustrations embellish certain stories, and the texts often refer to original typescripts. Casual readers, however, may find the overall quality disappointing. Most of the stories are minor. Many are quite brief. A few tales yet remain uncollected, so this is not a one-stop shop, and one of the best from this book, "Night Shade" has already appeared in the Vintage Hammett (2005). As if unsure of the premise, the editor immerses the stories within what is, in effect, a short biography of Hammett written by himself—almost half the total page count. Edgar-winner Joe Gores provides an introduction. (Sept.)
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*Starred Review* At first glance, this seems like another bottom-line-driven attempt to collect a famous writer's justly neglected early works. This time, though, that isn't the case. These 21, long-out-of-print stories find Hammett at or near the top his game, his signature hard-boiled style shining brightly, for example, in the original Continental Op stories published in Black Mask in 1924. Hammett's very first story, "The Barber and his Wife," from 1922, is here, too, as is his last story for Collier's, "This Little Pig" (1934), which is presented both with the published ending and with a newly discovered alternate ending. While many anthologies are fairly leaden, with pat introductions presenting the stories, editor and publisher Emery does a fantastic job of bringing Hammett the accomplished writer and Hammett the struggling writer alive. He provides a running commentary, both before and after the stories, placing each work in the context of Hammett's life and development as a writer. There are some wonderful extra touches, too. For example, in the chapter devoted to Hammett's brief career as an advertising man in 1925 (after he temporarily gave up writing to feed his family), Emery includes illustrations of Hammett's ads, featuring the hilarious "Advertising Man Writes a Love Letter." He also includes The Thin Man and the Flack, a 1941 Cameradio production (a radio play with photos) that capitalized on the success of The Thin Man by falsely claiming Hammett as the author. With an insightful introduction by mystery writer Joe Gores. All in all, a splendid collection. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Vince Emery Productions
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0972589813
• ISBN 13: 9780972589819
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352
• Editor: Emery Vince