Tag Archives: Dashiell Hammett

Big as a phone book, but good enough to dial in Hammett

Posted on January 4, 2018 by

There is no dearth of commentaries on Hammett’s contribution to crime fiction, or reviews of his Continental Op stories. The foremost value of Richard Layman and Julie M. Rivett’s Big Book of The Continental Op, a door-stopper of a book, … Continue reading →

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Hammett on Hammett: The Case of the Mystery Editor

Posted on April 11, 2016 by

Maxwell Perkins coached and encouraged F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gordon Lish often slashed more than half of Raymond Carver’s stories. Thanks to letters, journals, and literary scholars, readers can see the trajectories of manuscripts from draft to printed page. Not just … Continue reading →

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Hookers of Gin

Posted on September 3, 2012 by

“I poured out a couple of hookers of gin…She went into the kitchen for another siphon and more ice.” –Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest “There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas … Continue reading →

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The Pagan’s Creed

Posted on December 21, 2011 by

“Have you ever heard anything about God, Topsy?” The child looked bewilder’d, but grinned as usual. “Do you know who made you?” “Nobody, as I knows on,” said the child, with a short laugh. The idea appeared to amuse her … Continue reading →

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It burned on invisibly, a candle in the crypt

Posted on November 26, 2011 by

“He had said that most people saw only the “brownstone front” side of his nature, the austere, stiff conservative side, but that there was another, a truer side, a romantic, loyal, idealistic one. This is what he meant when he … Continue reading →

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Two rats and one sock

Posted on November 11, 2011 by

“6:38 P.M. On an afternoon hotter than two rats fucking in a wool sock, John McBride, six-foot one-and-a-half, 220 pounds, ham-handed, built like a wild boar and of similar disposition, arrived by ferry from mainland Texas to Galveston Island, a … Continue reading →

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