http://www.thrillingdetective.com/charles.html
and Asta has his own website:
http://www.iloveasta.com/ThinMan.htm
Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
March, 2016
PERSONAL INFORMATION:
Family: Born May 27, 1894, in St. Mary, MD; died of lung cancer January 10, 1961; Politics: Marxist. Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Army Ambulance Corps, 1918-19, became sergeant; U.S. Army Signal Corps, 1942-45, became sergeant.
CAREER:
Writer. Worked as freight clerk, stevedore, timekeeper, yardman, and railroad worker; private detective with Pinkerton National Detective Agency, c. 1914-l8 and 1919-21; Albert S. Samuels Jewelers, San Francisco, CA, advertising copywriter, 1922-27; worked sporadically as screenwriter for various motion picture studios from 1930 until after World War II. Active in various left-wing organizations, beginning 1937; member of Civil Rights Congress, New York state president, 1946, national vice-chair, 1948, New York state chair, 1951; convicted and imprisoned for contempt of Congress, 1951. Jefferson School of Social Sciences, faculty member, 1946-47 and 1949-56, member of board of trustees, 1948.
Hammett wrote more than 80 short stories and five novels: Red Harvest (1929), The Dain Curse (1929), The Maltese Falcon (1930), The Glass Key (1931) and The Thin Man (1934). He created tough guys Sam Spade and the Continental Op as well as debonaire sleuths Nick and Nora Charles. He wrote a comic strip ("Secret Agent X-9"), an original radio series ("The Fat Man") and worked on numerous scripts, often simply to polish dialogue. Hammett's crisp, colorful language brought gangster slang into everyday speech.
The Thin Man (Jan 1934)
Nick Charles searches for a wealthy inventor who is the prime suspect in a New York City murder case.
Return of the Thin Man: After the Thin Man and Another Thin Man [first publication Nov 2012] Collects the two novellas that were the basis of the 1930s movies After the Thin Man and Another Thin Man, but were never published themselves, until now.
Dashiell Hammett is widely considered the father of hard-boiled detective fiction. Along with those of Caroll John Daley, Hammett's stories in Black Mask magazine helped to bring about a major movement in detective fiction away from the genteel detectives solving crimes perpetrated by masterminds, to rough, believable private eyes dealing with common crooks. In the words of Raymond Chandler, "Hammett took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into the alley.... [He] gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the means at hand, not with hand-wrought duelling pistols, curare, and tropical fish." Hammett's importance as a writer lies in his influence as an innovator, his impact as a stylist, and his skill in characterization.
READ ALIKES:
Chandler, Raymond, (1888-1959) Reason: If Dashiell Hammett is the father of "hard-boiled" detection, Raymond Chandler is a son to make him proud -- both feature private eyes who seek common criminals in a grittily realistic, 1930s-50s setting. -- Bethany Latham
Estleman, Loren D. Reason: Loren Estleman's protagonist, Amos Walker, and Dashiell Hammett's archetypal private eye Sam Spade are the quintessential hardboiled detectives, and Estleman also shares stylistic elements with Hammett - sharp dialogue, an exploration of the seamy underbelly of crime in a large city, and an ambience that evokes all the familiar tropes of noir. -- Bethany Latham
Gardner, Erle Stanley, (1889-1970) Reason: Though he's most famous for his lawyer crimesolver, Perry Mason, rather than a private eye, Erle Stanley Gardner's formula shares some elements which may appeal to fans of Dashiell Hammett's stories of realistic detection and the common criminals it uncovers, all within a 1930s to mid-century setting. -- Bethany Latham
Harvey, Michael T. Reason: Michael T. Harvey and Dashiell Hammett write noir fiction in a gritty, urban setting. Their stories feature tough, strong private eyes who take on the underside of society. -- Rebecca Sigmon
Kerr, Philip Reason: Philip Kerr's adult fiction shares with Dashiell Hammett's a pervasive film noir atmosphere and a penchant for brooding, complex protagonists who must often navigate morally ambiguous settings. -- Bethany Latham
[from NoveList and Artemis Literary Sources]
