{"product_id":"the-maltese-falcon-the-thin-man-red-harvest-isbn-9780375411250","title":"The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe three classic novels published here in one volume  are rich with the crisp prose, subtle characters, and intricate plots that made Dashiell  Hammett one of the most admired writers of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA one-time detective  and a master of deft understatement, Hammett virtually invented the hard-boiled crime  novel. In \u003ci\u003eThe Maltese Falcon\u003c\/i\u003e, Sam Spade, a private eye with his own solitary code  of ethics, tangles with a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at  the drop of a dime. \u003ci\u003eThe Thin Man\u003c\/i\u003e introduces Hammett's wittiest creations, Nick and  Nora Charles, who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. And in \u003ci\u003eRed  Harvest\u003c\/i\u003e, Hammett's anonymous tough-guy detective, the Continental Op, takes on the  entire town of Poisonville in a deadly war against corruption.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Dashiell Hammett  is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer.\"—\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e”Hammett was spare, hard-boiled, but he did over and over what only the best writers  can ever do. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before.”—Raymond  Chandler\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e”Hammett’s prose was clean and entirely unique. His characters were as  sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction.”—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e”As a novelist of realistic intrigue, Hammett was unsurpassed in his own or any  time.”—Ross Macdonald\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e”Dashiell Hammett’s dialogues can be compared only with the  best in Hemingway.”—André Gide\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e”Hammett is one of the best contemporary American  writers.”—Gertrude Stein\u003c\/p\u003eDashiell 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 \u003ci\u003eThe Maltese Falcon \u003c\/i\u003e(1930) he first introduced his famous private eye, Sam Spade. \u003ci\u003eThe Thin Man\u003c\/i\u003e (1932) offered another immortal sleuth, Nick Charles. \u003ci\u003eRed Harvest (\u003c\/i\u003e1929), \u003ci\u003eThe Dain Curse\u003c\/i\u003e (1929), and \u003ci\u003eThe Glass Key\u003c\/i\u003e (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 \u003ci\u003eThe Big Knockover\u003c\/i\u003e (1966, edited by Lillian Hellman). Another volume of his stories, \u003cb\u003eT\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003ehe Continental Op\u003c\/i\u003e (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.","brand":"Everyman's Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303186780389,"sku":"NP9780375411250","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780375411250.jpg?v=1767740387","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-maltese-falcon-the-thin-man-red-harvest-isbn-9780375411250","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}