Dashiell Hammett

In the stories and novellas he wrote for Black Mask 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: 24 in all, along with some revealing essays and an earlier version of his novel The Thin Man. Mixing melodramatic panache...

Nick Charles searches for a wealthy inventor who is the prime suspect in a New York City murder case.

Detective Sam Spade goes in search of a priceless statuette after the death of his partner.

Dashiell Hammett was a crime writer who elevated the genre to true literature, and The Thin Man was Hammett's last-and most successful-novel. Following the enormous success of "The Thin Man" movie in 1934, Hammett was commissioned to write stories for additional films. He wrote two full-length novellas for the films that became "After the Thin Man" and "Another Thin Man." Hammett brought back his classic characters, retired private investigator Nick...