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THE THIN MAN
by Hammett, Dashiell
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- About Very Good in Fair dust jacket; previous owner signature and small bookshop sticker on front pastedown; light-green cloth s
- Seller
-
Los Altos Hills, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1934. Hardcover. About Very Good in Fair dust jacket; previous owner signature and small bookshop sticker on front pastedown; light-green cloth stamped in red and blue is faded at edges; dj repaired/reinforced with brown paper taped to verso; hand coloring to areas of front panel and spine. 7.5 x 5.25 x 1.5 inches. First Edition, First State; dust jacket is the red-color state; Layman A6.1a
Synopsis
Dashiell Samuel Hammett was born in St. Mary’s County. He grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Hammett left school at the age of fourteen and held several kinds of jobs thereafter—messenger boy, newsboy, clerk, operator, and stevedore, finally becoming an operative for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. Sleuthing suited young Hammett, but World War I intervened, interrupting his work and injuring his health. When Sergeant Hammett was discharged from the last of several hospitals, he resumed detective work. He soon turned to writing, and in the late 1920s Hammett became the unquestioned master of detective-story fiction in America. In The Maltese Falcon (1930) he first introduced his famous private eye, Sam Spade. The Thin Man (1932) offered another immortal sleuth, Nick Charles. Red Harvest (1929), The Dain Curse (1929), and The Glass Key (1931) are among his most successful novels. During World War II, Hammett again served as sergeant in the Army, this time for more than two years, most of which he spent in the Aleutians. Hammett’s later life was marked in part by ill health, alcoholism, a period of imprisonment related to his alleged membership in the Communist Party, and by his long-time companion, the author Lillian Hellman, with whom he had a very volatile relationship. His attempt at autobiographical fiction survives in the story “Tulip,” which is contained in the posthumous collection The Big Knockover (1966, edited by Lillian Hellman). Another volume of his stories, The Continental Op (1974, edited by Stephen Marcus), introduced the final Hammett character: the “Op,” a nameless detective (or “operative”) who displays little of his personality, making him a classic tough guy in the hard-boiled mold—a bit like Hammett himself.
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Details
- Bookseller
- May Day Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 04742
- Title
- THE THIN MAN
- Author
- Hammett, Dashiell
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - About Very Good in Fair dust jacket; previous owner signature and small bookshop sticker on front pastedown; light-green cloth s
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1934
- Bookseller catalogs
- Fiction;
- Size
- 7.5 x 5.25 x 1.5 inches
Terms of Sale
May Day Books
o Payment cheerfully accepted by check, money order, or Visa/MC credit cards; o The books are subject to prior sale; please call or email to reserve for 10 days; o California residents please add 9.00% sales tax; o The books are shipped on my receipt of your check, money order or credit card information; o The books are returnable within 10 days for a complete refund for any reason; o Reciprocal trade courtesies extended on most items upon request; o All international shipping now by air only.
About the Seller
May Day Books
Biblio member since 2005
Los Altos Hills, California
About May Day Books
Selling on the internet and by mail-order catalog since 1997.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Fair
- is a worn book that has complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc....
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
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