Stories & Novelettes:

[*sequel to  "The House on Turk Street"]

aka: A Tale of Two Women (1938 (c) by King Features Syndicate)
(reprinted: March 3, 1987, San Francisco Examiner)

[--I can be more definite about "A Tale of Two Women." Last year, I purchased a copy of the March 3, 1987 issue of the San Francisco Examiner. As part of the paper's centennial celebration it reprinted this story by one of its favorite sons. The copyright is given as "1938 King Features Syndicate." The story is clearly a re-titled "Women, Politics and Murder." I think the likelihood to be slim that the Examiner chose to re-title the story on its own initiative, using a title from one of the unlocated Hammett stories. The King Features Syndicate copyright notice also argues against this scenario.
Don Herron site http://www.donherron.com/?p=1159  )

[--"Another Perfect Crime" is minor Hammett, a humorous short-short (about 700 words) concerning a hapless criminal who thinks he commits the perfect crime by being such the obvious suspect that no one will actually suspect him.]

[* This story was written by Hammett in the mid-1920s under the title "The Figure of Incongruity" and sold to a magazine that went bankrupt before its publication. The story languished in the safe for 34 years till the time it was published by "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" on February 1, 1961, 21 days after Hammet's death. Thus "A Man Named Thin" proved to be the last Hammett story though it had originally been written about 35 years before its creator's death.
**Hammett has created here a rather different sort of protagonist, a dandified poet. He can still write well for him, however, showing great range. This type of character might limit the types of story Hammett could use him for however.]

[*рассказ был написан под заглавием "The Figure of Incongruity" в середине 1920-х гг. и  продан в один журнал, который обанкротился накануне публикации. Пролежав  в сейфе 34 года, рассказ был опубликован спустя 21 день после смерти Хэмметта].

[*sequel to "The Big Knockover"]

[NOTE: -- A few years after Crime Stories was published I purchased a copy of the January 1928 issue of Mystery Stories. Recently I decided to check to just what extent Dannay edited this story. Well, not only did he make several inexplicable edits — presumably for the sake of saving space — that detract from the story, but the damage was compounded by the copy editor at the Library of America. In transcribing the story from The Creeping Siamese page 116 was deleted!
   Now this isn't just any ordinary page of superfluous descriptive prose, this is the climatic scene between the Op and Colonel Einarson in which the Op pressures the colonel into accepting the deal to crown the Op's client, Grantham, king of Muravia. If the Op cannot get Einarson to go along with his play, he could end up before a firing squad.
   In the Crime Stories version the Op asks the colonel to step away from the others and talk with him. He asks the Colonel, "Why not give Grantham his crown now?" The next sentence is "He thought it over." We're left to assume the Colonel, without any persuasion from the Op, thinks it over. The deleted scene is a terrific example of tough talk and pressure from the Op to convince the Colonel to follow his play.
   For those interested, I have compiled the following list to indicate what edits were made by Dannay to the story and included the content from the deleted page (taken from the text of the story as it appears in Mystery Stories). The list indicates the page number from Crime Stories where the edit occurs, the line number, whether it is from the top or the bottom of the page, and the affected text — the deleted text is underlined.
Don Herron site http://www.donherron.com/?p=1081 ]

[--Hammett wrote these ten chapters in 1930, some three years before he wrote and published "The Thin Man". Although the story line of these chapters bears clear similarities to that of the novel, when published the latter was a completely rewritten work. The style in this roughly first fifth of a novel is much more akin to the hard-edged work Hammett published in Black Mask. And Nick and Nora Charles do not appear here.
*** "This early version of 1930 stands in sharp contrast to the novel Hammett eventually finished for Alfred A. Knopf three years later, with vast differences in basic approach, mood, plot, and tone. A call from Hollywood and the promise of substantial film money had caused Hammett to abandon the original manuscript at sixty-five typed pages. When he returned to it three years later, John Guild, the Op-like working detective - dedicated, stoic, close-mouthed - was replaced by Nick Charles, a hard-drinking, party-loving cynic, an ex-crime solver with no desire to solve more crimes; he just wanted another martini. It was Nick's wife, Nora (modeled directly on Lillian Hellman), who badgered him into becoming a detective again to solve the case of the missing thin man." (from Introduction by William F. Nolan for the collection "Nightmare Town", Knopf, 1999)]

?  = "On the Make" *?*
[Hammett's original short story for the film "Mister Dynamite" (1935, Universal Pictures)] see: screen stories

Magazine stories:

see: Women, Politics and Murder (September 1924, Black Mask)

see: The Assistant Murderer (February 1926, Black Mask)

Unpublished works
(Dashiell Hammett Papers):
/ рус.

Action and the Quiz Kid / Проныра и вундеркинд
The Breech-Born / Вперёд ногами
The Croaker
The Darkened Face. Part one: The Unlocked Door
December First
Devil's Playground
Dynamite Carson [untitled]
Fragments of Justice / Компоненты правосудия
The Good Meal: a Play in Three Acts.
The Hunter
An Inch and a Half of Glory
The Kiss-off [film treatment for "City Streets"]
The Lovely Strangers
Magic [fantastic story] [see also "The Secret Emperor" (1st unfinished novel)] / Магия
Monk and Johnny Fox / Монах и Джонни Фокс
The Murderer Who Thought Twice
Nelson Redline [untitled]
[Review of] "Desperate Men" by James D. Horan
September 20, 1938.
Seven Pages / Семь страничек
The Sign of the Potent Pills
They Die Too
Three Dimes
A Throne for the Worm / Трон для червя
Time to Die
The Ungallant
Week-end
Women Are a Lot of Fun Too

The Secret Emperor (1st unfinished novel)
[*The Secret Emperor, an unfinished novel present in the series, is written on the versos of discarded manuscript pages of a number of Hammett's short stories. Accompanying The Secret Emperor are plot summaries and descriptions of characters.
**Working notes for "The Secret Emperor," Hammett's first, never-finished novel, show that it included elements he later used in "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Glass Key." + fragments in stories: "The Creeping Siamese", "Dead Yellow Women", "The Gutting of Couffignal", "Magic"]
=======
*? a collection of short stories:
Including Murder (contents: "Bodies Piled Up", "The Gatewood Caper", "The Golden Horseshoe", "Night Shots", "Women, Politics and Murder")

Screen stories:

[Synopsis: City Streets. It's not a private eye tale, but it does star Gary Cooper as The Kid, a laidback, hick carny working the shooting gallery racket at a traveling fair. Nan Cooley (Sylvia Sidney), a mobster's daughter, falls in a big way for The Kid, despite his lack of interest in joining daddy's business and supporting her in the lifestyle she's accustomed to. But, when daddy dearest frames her on a murder beef, and she's sent to prison, Nan's attitude changes. While she's whiling away her time in the big house, her father cons The Kid into joining the gang in order to help free Nan, only to have The Kid end up running the gang. But when Nan is sprung, she wants nothing more to do with the mob and tries to get The Kid to quit.]

[Synopsis: Comedy-mystery featuring Nick and Nora Charles: a former detective and his rich, playful wife. They solve a murder case mostly for the fun of it.
  After a four year absence, one time detective Nick Charles returns to New York with his new wife Nora and their dog, Asta. Nick re-connects with many of his old cronies, several of whom are eccentric characters, to say the least. He's also approached by Dorothy Wynant whose inventor father Clyde Wynant is suspected of murdering her step-mother. Her father had left on a planned trip some months before and she has had no contact with him. Nick isn't all that keen on resuming his former profession but egged-on by wife Nora, who thinks this all very exciting, he agrees to help out. He solves the case, announcing the identity of the killer at a dinner party for all of the suspects. (from IMDB)]

[Synopsis: Mr. Dynamite was based on the Dashiel Hammett novel "On the Make". Edmund Lowe plays jaunty private eye T. N. Thompson, or T.N.T. ("Mistery Dynamite", get it?) Nothing pleases Thompson more than running rings around the San Francisco police force, headed by the dyspeptic detective King (Robert Gleckler). On this occasion, Mr. Dynamite stumbles upon several corpses, taking it all in stride as he follows the trail of clues to the guilty party. Alas, he's broken several laws along the way, thus our hero is forced to hop the first train out of town, accompanied as always by faithful secretary Lynn (Jean Dixon). /~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide/]

(written ~ 1935-?; 1st published 1986, The New Black Mask, # 5-6) Nick and Nora Charles-2 (screen-story)

[*"After the Thin Man". --Nick and Nora return from New York City to San Francisco to find a welcome-home New Year's Eve party in progress at their house. That party is interrupted, however, when the body of the former gardener for Nora's family is found on their doorstep.  
*** "It continues the adventures of the characters Nick and Nora Charles, who Hammett introduced in his 1933 novel "The Thin Man". But getting Hammett to produce this film treatment was evidently not an easy undertaking. To quote from New Black Mask's introduction to the story: "After the success of the movie The Thin Man in 1934, a wire was sent from the Culver City office of MGM to the New York office requesting that Hammett be hired to write a sequel ... Hammett arrived in Culver City on October 29, 1934, rented a six-bedroom penthouse at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, and proceeded to astonish Hollywood regulars with his profligacy ... He drank the nights away in the company of a variety of female partners and then complained about being harassed by starlets ... [A]t the end of his ten-week contract, he had only a thirty-four page plot summary to show."
  Although Hammett was a slow and unreliable worker, studio executives liked what they saw in the plot summary. They hired him to flesh out the story to 115 pages of typescript, and then Hammett friends Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich translated it into screenplay format." (from an article about "New Black Mask" magazine -"Back to Black, Part V" by Mark Coggins)

(written 1938; unpublished) Nick and Nora Charles-3 (screen-story)

[*The final treatment finished by Hammett and the Hacketts (Frances & Albert) on May 13, 1938, was part original story material with portions of an old Hammett Continental Op story, "The Farewell Murder" (Black Mask, February, 1930) mixed in. The one hundred and forty page outline, which included two versions of one eighteen page segment, was entitled "Another Thin Man". The title referred to Nick and Nora's son, Nicky, Jr. and how he would grow up to be just like his father. The title also reinforced the perception of Nick Charles being the titular Thin Man and not the murdered Wynant of the first film.]

[*By early spring of 1939, Hammett was back to work adapting a 1929 Continental Op story called "Fly Paper" into the original, non-Thin Man screen story "Girl Hunt". On July 14, Hammett's contract was cancelled and "Girl Hunt" was returned to his agent, rejected on August 12, 1939.]

[*"Shadow of the Thin Man". --Nick and Nora are at their wise-cracking best as they investigate murder and racketeering at a local race-track. (from IMDB)
***On December 7, 1938, Hammett submitted an eight-page outline for a fourth film, tentatively titled "Sequel to the Thin Man." (Evidently written very quickly after completing his work on the script for "Another Thin Man".) The story featured a host of returning characters from the first two films.
  In the outline, Macaulay, the murderous lawyer from the first film, has escaped from prison, vowing to kill Mimi. Mimi and son Gilbert move to San Francisco, but are followed by Macaulay, who is masquerading in drag. They go to Mimi's first husband Chris, who is back with his first wife Georgia. Georgia is seeing Morelli behind Chris's back. Chris and Dancer, the nightclub owner from After the Thin Man, plan on extorting money from Mimi.
  After a "battle royale" at Nick and Nora's between Morelli, Dancer, Georgia, Chris and Mimi, Chris is murdered on the way to his hotel. In his haste to leave the scene, Macauly drops his wig and is arrested for murder. Nick isn't convinced of Macauly's guilt and begins to investigate. He ultimately proves that it was Gilbert who shot Chris, convinced that the money Mimi was paying in extortion was rightfully his, as his father's heir.
  The entire plot bordered on the ridiculous and some of Hammett's biographers have speculated if the whole thing wasn't done to test Stromberg's patience.
  The outline was rejected on Christmas Day, 1938. By early spring of 1939, Hammett was back to work adapting a 1929 Continental Op story called "Fly Paper" into the original, non-Thin Man screen story "Girl Hunt". On July 14, Hammett's contract was cancelled and "Girl Hunt" was returned to his agent, rejected on August 12, 1939.
  The Hacketts also had no desire to continue working on the series. As Frances later told Myrna Loy, "Finally, I just threw up on my typewriter. I couldn't do it again; I couldn't write another one."
  Despite the behind the cameras departure of Hammett and the Hacketts, MGM was quick to produce the next Thin Man film, 1941's "Shadow of the Thin Man". This time director Van Dyke worked from a screenplay by Irving Brecher and Harry Kurnitz from Kurnitz's original story. Kurnitz was a friend of Loy's, having been introduced by writer and producer Collier Young and his wife Valerie. Kurnitz had also written I Love You Again (1940) for Powell and Loy. (from "The Thin Man: Murder, Mirth and Marriage At The Movies" By Rich Drees)]

[Synopsis: --Nick and Nora go on holiday (to Nick's parents who live in the small town of Sycamore Springs), and end up involved in a murder.
  *Richard Thorpe had taken over the directional chores for this installment of the series. (Norman Taurog goes uncredited as the director of some reshoots that were done for the picture in August and September of 1944. Thorpe was unavailable, as he had already started on his next picture Thrill of a Romance.) Harry Kurnitz once again supplied the story, though this time it was adapted by Dwight Taylor and Robert Riskin. Riskin's brother Everett Riskin took for production duties from the departed Stromberg. (from "The Thin Man: Murder, Mirth and Marriage At The Movies" By Rich Drees)]

[Synopsis: --Nick, Nora, and Nick Jr. investigate murders in New York. Nick Jr. (now old enough for a two-wheeled bicycle and piano lessons) is played by Dean Stockwell. Keenan Wynn, Gloria Grahame and Jayne Meadows are featured in this story set in the world of nightclub musicians. The plot, somewhat more convoluted and darker than the other Thin Man movies, reflected post war sensibilities.
  *The series wound to a close in 1947 release of Song of the Thin Man, with Nick and Nora investigating the murder of a nighclub musician. While 13 years earlier Nick and Nora were the toast of the Manhattan nightlife, they now seem somewhat confused and bemused by the current jazz club scene. Nat Perrin and Steve Fischer's script (with additional dialog from Harry Crane and James O'Hanlon) is functional, but the film is carried strictly by the force of Powell and Loy's screen presence. (from "The Thin Man: Murder, Mirth and Marriage At The Movies" By Rich Drees)]

Plays:

[*Cameradio Drama, photo illustrated script probably written by a writer for the radio series "The Adventures of the Thin Man".
*It capitalized on the success of The Thin Man by falsely claiming Hammett as the author. This radio play (with photos) was published in the collection "Lost Stories by D. Hammett", ed. by Vince Emery, 2005].

[*Runyon, known as The Fat Man, was a tough, at times world-weary private eye, based, perhaps, on Hammett's Continental Op.]

Novels:

[*Tulip, another unfinished novel, dates from about 1952 and is the author's latest known surviving literary effort.]

?  = Poppy (ca 1947) *?*
[*The non-criminal and autobiographical long short story Poppy (ca 1947), which was written while Hammett was enduring political persecution, poverty, and alcohol-intensified ill-health, is admirable in its stoic lucidity, and is in effect a complex explanation of why Hammett can no longer write anything except this particular story that he is now writing after a twelve-year silence. (from John Fraser "Quickies I")] http://www.jottings.ca/john/thriller_quik1.html )

Books:

Articles:

[*Hammett reminisces. A humorous piece which chronicled, in anecdote form, some of the lighter moments from his years with the Pinkertons]

Poems:

Collections:

1) Dashiell Hammett Omnibus (Knopf, 1935)  [3 novels] Contents: Red Harvest; The Dain Curse; The Maltese Falcon

2) The Complete Dashiell Hammett (Knopf, 1942) [5 novels] Contents: The Thin Man; The Glass Key; The Maltese Falcon; The Dain Curse; Red Harvest.

3) Blood Money (Spivak, 1943) Contents: "The Big Knockover"; "$106,000 Blood Money".
[* a "new" Hammett novel is released in softcover (and inexpensive hardcover) under the title Blood Money. In reality, this "new" novel is the joining of two previously published short stories from 1927.]

4) Dashiell Hammett Mystery Omnibus (World, 1944) [2 novels] Contents: The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key.

5) The Adventures of Sam Spade and Other Stories (edited by Ellery Queen) (Spivak, 1944);
aka (reprinted): They Can Only Hang You Once (Mercury, 1949)
Contents:
"Too Many Have Lived"
"They Can Only Hang You Once"
"A Man Called Spade"
"The Assistant Murder"
"Nightshade"
"The Judge Laughed Last"
"His Brother's Keeper"
also : A Man Called Spade (Dell, 1945; Dell, 1950) [*paperback shortened version]
Contents:
"Too Many Have Lived";
"They Can Only Hang You Once"; 
"A Man Called Spade"; 
"The Assistant Murderer";  
"His Brother's Keeper".]
[* The Adventures of Sam Spade and Other Stories - The first of nine collections edited and introduced by Frederick Dannay ("Ellery Queen"). Also released as They Can Only Hang You Once, and in a pared-down version: A Man Called Spade.]

6) The Continental Op (edited by Ellery Queen) (Spivak, 1945)
Contents:
"Fly Paper"
"Death on Pine Street"
"Zigzags of Treachery"
"The Farewell Murder"

7) The Return of the Continental Op (edited by Ellery Queen) (Spivak, 1945)
Contents:
"The Whosis Kid"
"The Gutting of Couffignal"
"Death and Company"
"One Hour"
"The Tenth Clew"

8) Hammett Homicides (edited by Ellery Queen) (Spivak, 1946)
Contents:
"The House in Turk Street"
"The Girl with the Silver Eyes"
"Night Shots"
"The Main Death"
"Two Sharp Knives"
"Ruffian's Wife"

9) Dead Yellow Women (edited by Ellery Queen) (Spivak, 1947)
Contents:
"Dead Yellow Women"
"The Golden Horshoe"
"House Dick"
"Who Killed Bob Teal?"
"The Green Elephant"
"The Hairy One"

10) Nightmare Town (edited by Ellery Queen) (Spivak/Mercury Mystery, 1948)
Contents:
"Nightmare Town"
"The Scorched Face"
"Albert Pastor at Home"
"Corkscrew"

11) The Creeping Siamese (edited by Ellery Queen) (Spivak, 1950)
Contents:
"The Creeping Siamese"
"The Man Who Killed Dan Odams"
"The Nails in Mr. Cayterer"
"The Joke on Eloise Morey"
"Tom, Dick or Harry"
"This King Business"

12) The Dashiell Hammett Omnibus (Cassell, 1950) [5 novels & 4 short stories]
Contents:
Red Harvest (NOVEL)
"Dead Yellow Women"
The Dain Curse (NOVEL)
"The Golden Horseshoe"
The Maltese Falcon (NOVEL)
"House Dick"
The Glass Key (NOVEL)
"Who Killed Bob Teal?"
The Thin Man (NOVEL)

13) The Woman in the Dark (edited by Ellery Queen) (Spivak, 1951)
Contents:
"Arson Plus"
"Slippery Fingers"
"The Black Hat That Wasn't There"
"Woman in the Dark"
"Afraid of a Gun"
"Holiday"
"The Man Who Stood in the Way"

14) A Man Named Thin and Other Stories (edited by Ellery Queen) (Ferman, 1962)
Contents:
"A Man Named Thin"
"Wages of Crime"
"The Gatewood Caper"
"The Barber and His Wife"
"Itchy the Debonair"
"The Second-Story Angel"
"In the Morgue"
"When Luck's Running Good"

15) The Novels of Dashiell Hammett (Knopf, 1965) [5 novels] Contents: Red Harvest; The Dain Curse; The Maltese Falcon; The Glass Key; The Thin Man.

16) The Big Knockover (edited by Lillian Hellman) (Random House, 1966)
"The Gutting of Couffignal"
"Fly Paper"
"The Scorched Face"
"This King Business"
"The Gatewood Caper"
"Dead Yellow Women"
"Corkscrew"
"Tulip"
"The Big Knockover"
"$106,000 Blood Money"

17) The Continental Op (edited by Steven Marcus) (Random House, 1974)
"The Tenth Clew"
"The Golden Horseshoe"
"The House in Turk Street"
"The Girl with the Silver Eyes"
"The Whosis Kid"
"The Main Death"
"The Farewell Murder"

18) Five Complete Novels (Avenell, 1980); (Wings, 1980) [5 novels] Contents: Red Harvest; The Dain Curse; The Maltese Falcon; The Glass Key; The Thin Man.

19) The Four Great Novels (Picador, 1984) [4 novels] Contents: Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key.

20) Complete Novels (Library of America, 1999) [5 novels] Contents: Red Harvest; The Dain Curse; The Maltese Falcon; The Glass Key; The Thin Man.

21) Nightmare Town (edited by Kirby McCauley, Martin H. Greenberg and Ed Gorman) (Knopf, 1999)
Contents:
Introduction by William F. Nolan
"Nightmare Town"
"House Dick" ("Bodies Piled Up")
"Ruffian's Wife"
"The Man Who Killed Dan Odams"
"Night Shots"
"Zigzags of Treachery"
"The Assistant Murderer"
"His Brother's Keeper"
"Two Sharp Knives"
"Death on Pine Street" ("Women, Politics and Murder")
"The Second-Story Angel"
"Afraid of a Gun"
"Tom, Dick or Harry" ("Mike, Alec or Rufus")
"One Hour"
"Who Killed Bob Teal?"
"A Man Called Spade"
"Too Many Have Lived"
"They Can Only Hang You Once"
"A Man Named Thin"
"The First Thin Man" (ten chapters of an early version The Thin Man, written in 1930).

22) Crime Stories and Other Writings (selected by Steven Marcus) (NY: Library of America, 2001)
Contents:
"Arson Plus"
"Slippery Fingers"
"Crooked Souls"
"The Tenth Clew"
"Zigzags of Treachery"
"The House in Turk Street"
"The Girl With the Silver Eyes"
"Women, Politics & Murder"
"The Golden Horseshoe"
"Nightmare Town"
"The Whosis Kid"
"The Scorched Face"
"Dead Yellow Women"
"The Gutting of Couffignal"
"The Assistant Murderer"
"The Creeping Siamese"
"The Big Knockover"
"$106,000 Blood Money"
"The Main Death"
"This King Business"
"Fly Paper"
"The Farewell Murder"
"Woman in the Dark"
"Two Sharp Knives"
"The Thin Man: an Early Typescript" (first draft, written 1930)
"From the Memoirs of a Private Detective"
"Suggestions to Detective Story Writers".
[*The most ambitious Hammett collection. Almost all the stories are the original Black Mask text, rather than the edited and altered versions that have appeared in other collections]

23) Dashiell Hammett (Everyman's Library, 2000) [3 novels] Contents: The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, The Glass Key.

24) Lost Stories (edited by Vince Emery) (San Francisco, Calif.: Vince Emery Productions, 2005 [The Ace Performer Collection series])
Contents:
Background by Vince Emery.
Introduction: "It Was a Diamond, All Right" by Joe Gores.
Part One: A Rough Start by Vince Emery.
Part Two: 1922, New Writer :
"The Barber and His Wife";
"The Parthian Shot";
"The Great Lovers";
"Immortality";
"The Road Home".
Part Three: 1923, The Sixteen-Story Year :
"The Master Mind";
"The Sardonic Star of Tom Doody";
"The Joke on Eloise Morey";
"Holiday";
"The Crusader";
"The Green Elephant";
"The Dimple";
"Laughing Masks".
Part Four: 1924, Fiction Factory Slowdown:
"Itchy";
"Esther Entertains";
Part Five: 1925, Establish Writer Quits? :
"Another Perfect Crime";
"Ber-Bulu".
Part Six: 1926-1930, Ad Man and Novelist:
"The Advertising Man Writes a Love Letter".
Part Seven: 1930-1941, Rich and Famous :
"Night Shade";
"This Little Pig";
"The Thin Man and the Flack".
Part Eight: The Long Sunset by Vince Emery.
[*--8 illustrations, 38 photographs; 352 pages. Trade hardcover edition publication date September 1, 2005.
--These 21, long-out-of-print stories. Many of the stories are very short (one is a mere paragraph!).
--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.
--Editor and publisher Vince Emery includes illustrations of Hammett's ads, featuring the hilarious "The Advertising Man Writes a Love Letter." He also includes "The Thin Man and the Flack," a 1941 Cameraradio production (a radio play with photos) that capitalized on the success of The Thin Man by falsely claiming Hammett as the author.]
[*--"Lost Stories" is published by Vince Emery Productions (www.emerybooks.com). It 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.
--"Lost Stories" is released in 2005 as part of events held worldwide to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the publication of Dashiell Hammett's masterpiece The Maltese Falcon , often named as one of the twentieth-century's best novels.
--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, and a tale that Ellery Queen promised "is one of the most startling stories you have ever read." 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.]

[--Only the two most recent collections of Hammett's short fiction — Crime Stories & Other Writings (NY: Library of America, 2001) and Lost Stories (2005) — based their texts on the rare original pulp and slick magazine appearances. Don Herron site http://www.donherron.com/?p=1212 ]

Anthology editor: