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.
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.
Vince Emery is the editor of Lost Stories and the author of the bestseller How to Grow Your Business on the Internet. He lives near San Francisco.