{"title":"Library Of America Dashiell Hammett Edition","description":"\u003cp\u003eImmerse yourself in the hard-boiled world of Dashiell Hammett, a master of crime fiction. This Library of America collection showcases his gritty prose, complex characters, and enduring influence on the genre. A must-read for crime aficionados.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"dashiell-hammett-complete-novels-loa-110-book-dashiell-hammett-9781883011673","title":"Dashiell Hammett: Complete Novels (LOA #110)","description":"In a few years of extraordinary creative energy, Dashiell Hammett invented the modern American crime novel. In the words of Raymond Chandler, \"Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse. . . . He put these people down on paper as they were, and he made them talk and think in the language they customarily used for these purposes.\" Beginning as a prolific contributor to the pulp magazines of the 1920s, he succeeded during his brief career in making his kind of crime fiction a crucial part of the fabric of American writing: a genre that did not evade reality but rather embodied the grittiness and harshness of modern urban life.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The five novels that Hammett published between 1929 and 1934, collected here in one Library of America volume, have become part of modern American culture, creating archetypal characters and establishing the ground rules and characteristic tone for a whole tradition of hardboiled writing. Drawing on his own experiences as a Pinkerton detective, Hammett gave a harshly realistic edge to novels that were at the same time infused with a spirit of romantic adventure. His lean and deliberately simplified prose won admiration from such contemporaries as Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Each novel is distinct in mood and structure. \u003ci\u003eRed Harvest\u003c\/i\u003e (1929) epitomizes the violence and momentum of his \u003ci\u003eBlack Mask\u003c\/i\u003e stories about the anonymous detective the Continental Op. In this raucous and nightmarish evocation of political corruption and gang warfare in a western mining town (modeled on Butte, Montana) nicknamed \"Poisonville,\" the Op takes Machiavellian pleasure in pitting one faction against another to bring about their mutual destruction. The Op returns in \u003ci\u003eThe Dain Curse\u003c\/i\u003e (1929) to preside over a more ornately melodramatic tale involving jewel theft, drugs, and a mysterious religious cult.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e With \u003ci\u003eThe Maltese Falcon\u003c\/i\u003e (1930) and its protagonist Sam Spade, Hammett achieved his most enduring popular success. A tightly constructed quest story with an unforgettable cast of eccentric adventurers, it is at the same time shot through with a sense of disillusionment and the arbitrariness of personal destiny.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Glass Key\u003c\/i\u003e (1931), an exploration of city politics at their most scurrilous, traces intricate patterns of loyalty and betrayal in scenes charged with drama. His last novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Thin Man\u003c\/i\u003e (1934), is a ruefully comic tale distinct from the rest of his work. Paying homage to the traditional mystery form, it is best remembered for its protagonists Nick and Nora Charles, the sophisticated inebriates who would enjoy a long afterlife in the movies.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eLIBRARY OF AMERICA\u003c\/b\u003e is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49561024659729,"sku":"CIN1883011671VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49585792680209,"sku":"GOR001893830","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49692775448849,"sku":"CIN1883011671G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50109294280977,"sku":"GOR009889470","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51214923923729,"sku":"GOR004923393","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51379112640785,"sku":"CIN1883011671A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52628564115729,"sku":"NIN9781883011673","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1883011671.jpg?v=1755498222"},{"product_id":"dashiell-hammett-crime-stories-other-writings-loa-125-book-dashiell-hammett-9781931082006","title":"Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories \u0026 Other Writings (LOA #125)","description":"In the stories and novellas he wrote for \u003ci\u003eBlack Mask\u003c\/i\u003e and other pulp magazines in the 1920s and 1930s, Dashiell Hammett took the detective story and turned it into a medium for capturing the jarring textures and revved-up cadences of modern American life. In this volume, The Library of America collects the finest of these stories: twenty-four in all, along with some revealing essays and an earlier version of his novel \u003ci\u003eThe Thin Man\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Mixing melodramatic panache and poker-faced comedy, a sensitivity to place and a perceptive grasp of social conflict, Hammett's stories are hard-edged entertainments for an era of headlong change and extravagant violence. For the heroic sagas of earlier eras Hammett substituted the up-tempo, devious, sometimes nearly nihilistic exploits of con men and blackmailers, fake spiritualists and thieving politicians, slumming socialites and deadpan assassins.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e As a guide through this underworld he created the Continental Op, the nameless, laconic detective, world-weary and unblinking, who serves as protagonist of most of these stories. The deliberately unheroic Op is separated only by his code of professionalism from the brutality and corruption that run rampant in stories such as \"Zigzags of Treachery,\" \"Dead Yellow Women,\" \"Fly Paper,\" and \"$106,000 Blood Money.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Hammett's years of experience as a Pinkerton detective give even his most outlandishly plotted mysteries a gritty credibility, and his intimate knowledge of San Francisco made him the perfect chronicler of that city's waterfronts, back alleys, police stations, and luxury hotels. By connecting crime fiction to the realities of American streets and American speech, his \u003ci\u003eBlack Mask\u003c\/i\u003e stories opened up new vistas for generations of writers and readers.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eLIBRARY OF AMERICA\u003c\/b\u003e is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49565578133777,"sku":"CIN1931082006G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50775547183377,"sku":"GOR014067585","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51426009022737,"sku":"GOR002168977","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52181509734673,"sku":"NIN9781931082006","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53182559879441,"sku":"GOR010971531","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1931082006.jpg?v=1751061825"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/library-of-america-dashiell-hammett-edition-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}