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The Thin Man
by Dashiell Hammett
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Good/No Jacket
- Seller
-
Bethany, Missouri, United States
Item Price
$392.55$333.67
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1934 Stated first edition on copyright page. First printing with error "seep"
instead of "sleep" on page 209. Missing dust jacket but not before
it stained the covers. A few stains in the margins. Former owners name in pencil on the first blank page. Small book seller's sticker at the bottom of the back inside board. Interior clean, tight and unmarked except for
a few stains in margins.
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
- Jans Collectibles: Vintage Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 007299
- Title
- The Thin Man
- Author
- Dashiell Hammett
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1934
Terms of Sale
Jans Collectibles: Vintage Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Jans Collectibles: Vintage Books
Biblio member since 2007
Bethany, Missouri
About Jans Collectibles: Vintage Books
Jans Collectible Vintage Books
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Copyright page
- The page in a book that describes the lineage of that book, typically including the book's author, publisher, date of...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- 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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