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Lost Stories
Dashiell Hammett, the creator of Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man, was one of the 20th century’s most influential and entertaining authors. Even so, many of Hammett’s stories—including some of his best—have been out of the reach of anyone but a handful of scholars and collectors, until now. This essential compendium rescues 21 long-lost Hammett stories, all either never collected in an anthology or unavailable for decades. These stories appear nowhere else, and represent a variety of styles from the famous mysterysmith: his first detective fiction, humorous satires, adventure yarns, a sensitive autobiographical piece, and a Thin Man story told with photos. In addition, all stories have been restored to their original versions, replacing often wholesale cuttings with the original text for the first time. To round out this celebration of Hammett, three-time Edgar Award–winner Joe Gores has written an introduction describing how Hammett influenced literature, movies, television, and Gores’ own life.
342 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2005
3 people are currently reading
304 people want to read
About the author
Dashiell Hammett
555 books2,833 followersAlso wrote as Peter Collinson, Daghull Hammett, Samuel Dashiell, Mary Jane Hammett
Dashiell Hammett, an American, wrote highly acclaimed detective fiction, including The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1934).
Samuel Dashiell Hammett authored hardboiled novels and short stories. He created Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), and the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) among the enduring characters. In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on film, Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time" and was called, in his obituary in the New York Times, "the dean of the... 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction."
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiell...
Dashiell Hammett, an American, wrote highly acclaimed detective fiction, including The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1934).
Samuel Dashiell Hammett authored hardboiled novels and short stories. He created Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), and the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) among the enduring characters. In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on film, Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time" and was called, in his obituary in the New York Times, "the dean of the... 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction."
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiell...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
April 19, 2015
My question is now answered. My curiosity about how Hammett wrote and why so many authors chose to emulate his writing style is finally is resolved. I now know the answers to questions about Hammett that have dogged me for years.
Dashiell Hammett changed the hard-boiled/noir genre by his writing which is sparse, clean, simple, clear, so I have always been curious about he learned to write like he did.
From Venturegalleries.com: "According to Raymond Chandler, who took up the torch of tough-guy detective fiction when Hammett wrote the end to his final story, “There are still quite a few people who say that Hammett did not write detective stories all, merely hard-boiled chronicles of mean streets with a perfunctory mystery element dropped in like the olive in a martini.”
"He had class. He had style. His audience never realized it.
"Dashiell Hammett gave a touch of curious gallantry and sophistication to a genre that neither recognized nor demanded either. Said (Raymond) Chandler, “He demonstrated that the detective story can be important writing. The Maltese Falcon may or may not be a work of genius, but an art … Once a detective story can be as good as this, only the pedant will deny that it could be even better. Hammett did something else. He made the detective story fun to write, not an exhausting concatenation of insignificant clues.”
"Chandler believed that, in Hammett’s hands, American language – a style that belongs to all writers – “had no overtones, left no echo, evoked no image beyond a distant hill. He is said to have lacked heart, yet the story he thought most of – The Glass Key – is the record of a man’s devotion to a friend. He was spare, frugal, hard-boiled, but he did it over and over again – what only the best writers can ever do at all. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before.” "
For god's sake he dropped out of school when he was 13 years old so he obviously took no creative writing classes! Spare, frugal, hard-boiled are the key words for describing his writing and my question has been where did he learn to write like that, so sparingly?
As a 'skip tracer' for Pinkerton National Detective Agency for seven years, Hammett learned to find and focus on the 'skips' as they were known. Hammett learned to identify the color of their eyes, shape of their faces, color of hair, how they dressed, the smallest details of the skip.
Then getting back to the office, Hammett wrote the report which was nothing but the bare facts as required by Pinkerton. And that is how he writes, using basic words, forming sparse sentences.
Walaaaa. The answer to my question how Hammett came to write so succinctly and is held in such high esteem by so many successful writers.
***********
Besides answering my longstanding question, this is a fine collection of Hammett's stories, some only two pages, but stories which appeared in the magazines of the time i.e. Black Mask comes to mind.
This is volume one of four...I will read the other three! This was a fantastic read, so enjoyable about one of my very favorite authors.
Dashiell Hammett changed the hard-boiled/noir genre by his writing which is sparse, clean, simple, clear, so I have always been curious about he learned to write like he did.
From Venturegalleries.com: "According to Raymond Chandler, who took up the torch of tough-guy detective fiction when Hammett wrote the end to his final story, “There are still quite a few people who say that Hammett did not write detective stories all, merely hard-boiled chronicles of mean streets with a perfunctory mystery element dropped in like the olive in a martini.”
"He had class. He had style. His audience never realized it.
"Dashiell Hammett gave a touch of curious gallantry and sophistication to a genre that neither recognized nor demanded either. Said (Raymond) Chandler, “He demonstrated that the detective story can be important writing. The Maltese Falcon may or may not be a work of genius, but an art … Once a detective story can be as good as this, only the pedant will deny that it could be even better. Hammett did something else. He made the detective story fun to write, not an exhausting concatenation of insignificant clues.”
"Chandler believed that, in Hammett’s hands, American language – a style that belongs to all writers – “had no overtones, left no echo, evoked no image beyond a distant hill. He is said to have lacked heart, yet the story he thought most of – The Glass Key – is the record of a man’s devotion to a friend. He was spare, frugal, hard-boiled, but he did it over and over again – what only the best writers can ever do at all. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before.” "
For god's sake he dropped out of school when he was 13 years old so he obviously took no creative writing classes! Spare, frugal, hard-boiled are the key words for describing his writing and my question has been where did he learn to write like that, so sparingly?
As a 'skip tracer' for Pinkerton National Detective Agency for seven years, Hammett learned to find and focus on the 'skips' as they were known. Hammett learned to identify the color of their eyes, shape of their faces, color of hair, how they dressed, the smallest details of the skip.
Then getting back to the office, Hammett wrote the report which was nothing but the bare facts as required by Pinkerton. And that is how he writes, using basic words, forming sparse sentences.
Walaaaa. The answer to my question how Hammett came to write so succinctly and is held in such high esteem by so many successful writers.
***********
Besides answering my longstanding question, this is a fine collection of Hammett's stories, some only two pages, but stories which appeared in the magazines of the time i.e. Black Mask comes to mind.
This is volume one of four...I will read the other three! This was a fantastic read, so enjoyable about one of my very favorite authors.
January 16, 2020
This is a collection of 21 stories written by Dashiell Hammett that were either never collected in an anthology, or full versions were never reprinted (Frederic Dannay, aka Ellery Queen, cut up to 10% of some of the stories he published). The restored stories span Hammett's career, from the first story he wrote to the last. There is plenty of background on Hammett and the stories are placed in the context of his life.
Before Hammett's works, most fictional detectives were upper class, intelligent, hands off, solve-the-crime-after-walking-around-the-crime-scene type detectives. Hammett was the first to bring his detective to the streets and show the real process. Matt Scudder could not exist without Sam Spade and the Continental Op. Magnum, Spenser, Mike Hammer - their creators all owe Hammett.
I was impressed at the quality of the writing from his very first story. According to the author, Hammett was not a typical writer - not much education, no writing in childhood or teen years, no family history of writers, no job in the field, no writer friends. "Most writers have at least one of these five ingredients in their pockets. Hammett had zero." (Pg 45) He did write ad copy as an adult, and as a private detective himself, had the observational skills and experience to write what he knew.
I read this for the Genreland January challenge, "Detective". Although he's known now for mostly detective fiction, the stories in this book were mainly just crime stories. I think there was one detective story in the bunch. I'm counting it anyway!
Before Hammett's works, most fictional detectives were upper class, intelligent, hands off, solve-the-crime-after-walking-around-the-crime-scene type detectives. Hammett was the first to bring his detective to the streets and show the real process. Matt Scudder could not exist without Sam Spade and the Continental Op. Magnum, Spenser, Mike Hammer - their creators all owe Hammett.
I was impressed at the quality of the writing from his very first story. According to the author, Hammett was not a typical writer - not much education, no writing in childhood or teen years, no family history of writers, no job in the field, no writer friends. "Most writers have at least one of these five ingredients in their pockets. Hammett had zero." (Pg 45) He did write ad copy as an adult, and as a private detective himself, had the observational skills and experience to write what he knew.
I read this for the Genreland January challenge, "Detective". Although he's known now for mostly detective fiction, the stories in this book were mainly just crime stories. I think there was one detective story in the bunch. I'm counting it anyway!
April 26, 2023
I love Dashiell Hammett so this was a treat to read. I enjoyed the stories but I actually really liked the accompanying text to the stories a lot. It described Hammett’s life and what he was doing when the stories were published.
May 1, 2011
I have to perfectly honest: after the first chapter and first story, I was convinced that this book was going to be, largely, a forgettable exploration of the smaller, lesser, and perhaps even unknown works of Dashiell Hammett, arguably one of the singlemost unacknowledged literary genius of our times. Hammett's crisp, clean prose has influenced hundreds if not thousands of writers, not to mention the influence his work has had on countless readers of noir and even general crime fiction. Compiler and author Emery points out that the contemporary crime novel really owes its legacy to Hammett, who brushed aside the literary tradition of the elitist ubermensch as detectives and, instead, focused on less honest, far from perfect, flawed central characters who still managed to solve the case without tossing "justice" -- far more important to today's readers than "law" -- out the window.
However, after realizing that what truly mattered here through Emery's contribution was revisiting Hammett's artful prose not so much against the perspective of only world history but equally against the private, personal, flawed life of the author. Stories are broken up with Emery's biographical summation, and it becomes much easier to see how Hammett's own life -- the people, the places, the persuasions both good and bad -- helped contribute to the overall shape and spectacle that was to become these works and the larger works such as THE MALTESE FALCON and THE THIN MAN novels. Hammett's prose takes center stage here, but, under Emery's direction, it shares screen time with Hammett, a writer arguably as flawed as he was gifted.
The final accomplishment here is the principle reason for the five-star review: there's no way any reader can go back and enjoy any of Hammett's work WITHOUT rethinking what influenced the work. The stories will all have new meaning, and, quite possibly, you'll never read one of Hammett's handful of novels without turning back to LOST STORIES to get a better grasp of the personal context under which the tome was written.
However, after realizing that what truly mattered here through Emery's contribution was revisiting Hammett's artful prose not so much against the perspective of only world history but equally against the private, personal, flawed life of the author. Stories are broken up with Emery's biographical summation, and it becomes much easier to see how Hammett's own life -- the people, the places, the persuasions both good and bad -- helped contribute to the overall shape and spectacle that was to become these works and the larger works such as THE MALTESE FALCON and THE THIN MAN novels. Hammett's prose takes center stage here, but, under Emery's direction, it shares screen time with Hammett, a writer arguably as flawed as he was gifted.
The final accomplishment here is the principle reason for the five-star review: there's no way any reader can go back and enjoy any of Hammett's work WITHOUT rethinking what influenced the work. The stories will all have new meaning, and, quite possibly, you'll never read one of Hammett's handful of novels without turning back to LOST STORIES to get a better grasp of the personal context under which the tome was written.
February 5, 2011
Definitely more for the Hammett fan who needs to complete his collection than for the casual reader. Stories are accompanied by biographical material that doesn't really break any new ground as well as by literary (or I guess stylistic) analyses that are sometimes spot-on and other times wholly unnecessary.
The stories are pretty good, but they're definitely not Hammett's best.
The stories are pretty good, but they're definitely not Hammett's best.
July 20, 2008
While not a book for those who have never read Hammett, it is fun way to see how Hammett started out and quickly became good.
Early writings with a short biography of what Hammett was doing at the time he wrote the stories.
Early writings with a short biography of what Hammett was doing at the time he wrote the stories.
July 8, 2025
It was the lockdown of 2022—the world was inside out, and time was as warped as a noir mirror in a funhouse. Some of us baked banana bread, some of us stared at the walls, and some of us—like yours truly—dug into the smoky, shadow-laced world of hardboiled fiction. That’s when I stumbled upon Lost Stories by Dashiell Hammett. It felt less like reading a book and more like finding a forgotten bottle of bourbon in a drawer full of receipts—dusty, potent, and absolutely necessary.
Lost Stories is exactly what it says on the tin: a collection of tales from the pulp magazines of the 1920s and '30s that Hammett once wrote for Black Mask and other gritty publications. These weren’t the polished jewels like The Maltese Falcon or The Thin Man. No, these were the rough cuts—the street dogs, the bruisers, the ones who got their hands dirty before noir became a fashion statement.
And yet... they sparkle. In their own brutal, bone-rattling way.
What makes this collection so absorbing is its rawness. You can practically see the legend in the making. The sentences are lean, hungry, and wearing a fedora. You get everything here—stick-ups, shoot-outs, double-crosses, dames with too many secrets and detectives with too little patience. Some stories are just a few pages long, hitting you like a sucker punch. Others simmer like a cigarette between nervous fingers. But all of them thrum with the cadence of the alleyways Hammett knew so well.
Reading these during a global pandemic was oddly comforting. The world outside felt unpredictable, a little hostile, and tinged with paranoia. Hammett’s characters—always a little outside the law, never quite at home in their own skins—felt like strange, trenchcoat-wearing companions for that particular moment in history. They didn’t have all the answers, but they knew how to ask the right questions. They knew how to move through chaos with a cigarette clenched between their teeth and a wisecrack ready to go.
And of course, there’s the Continental Op—a short, squat, nameless detective who is pure noir engine. Several stories in this collection feature him in embryonic form. He’s not glamorous. He doesn’t wax philosophical. He just gets the job done, whether it means bribing, bluffing, or breaking bones. The Op taught me that cool isn’t about style—it’s about survival. It’s about knowing when to pull the trigger and when to walk away.
What struck me most, though, was how much Lost Stories reveals about Hammett himself. His life was chaotic, filled with illness, surveillance, and self-destruction. But in these pages, you can sense the urgency—the need to write, to get it down fast, before the whole damn thing goes up in smoke. It’s this urgency that gives the stories their edge. You’re not just reading a crime story; you’re reading a writer trying to hold the world still for a second.
And honestly? That’s what I was trying to do in 2022, too.
Lost Stories might not be Hammett’s most famous work, but in many ways, it’s his most honest. It’s what happens before a voice becomes iconic—before the genre gets codified, commodified, and cleaned up for critics. It’s pulp at its best—quick, dangerous, and unforgettable.
So, if you’ve got a taste for noir that hasn’t been over-polished, if you want to read the literary equivalent of whiskey in a coffee mug at 3AM, then Lost Stories is where you go. Just don’t expect happy endings. Expect grit. Expect betrayal. Expect a lot of smoke—and maybe, if you’re lucky, a little light breaking through the blinds.
And if you read it during a global lockdown, as I did? Well, you might just feel a little less alone in the dark.
Lost Stories is exactly what it says on the tin: a collection of tales from the pulp magazines of the 1920s and '30s that Hammett once wrote for Black Mask and other gritty publications. These weren’t the polished jewels like The Maltese Falcon or The Thin Man. No, these were the rough cuts—the street dogs, the bruisers, the ones who got their hands dirty before noir became a fashion statement.
And yet... they sparkle. In their own brutal, bone-rattling way.
What makes this collection so absorbing is its rawness. You can practically see the legend in the making. The sentences are lean, hungry, and wearing a fedora. You get everything here—stick-ups, shoot-outs, double-crosses, dames with too many secrets and detectives with too little patience. Some stories are just a few pages long, hitting you like a sucker punch. Others simmer like a cigarette between nervous fingers. But all of them thrum with the cadence of the alleyways Hammett knew so well.
Reading these during a global pandemic was oddly comforting. The world outside felt unpredictable, a little hostile, and tinged with paranoia. Hammett’s characters—always a little outside the law, never quite at home in their own skins—felt like strange, trenchcoat-wearing companions for that particular moment in history. They didn’t have all the answers, but they knew how to ask the right questions. They knew how to move through chaos with a cigarette clenched between their teeth and a wisecrack ready to go.
And of course, there’s the Continental Op—a short, squat, nameless detective who is pure noir engine. Several stories in this collection feature him in embryonic form. He’s not glamorous. He doesn’t wax philosophical. He just gets the job done, whether it means bribing, bluffing, or breaking bones. The Op taught me that cool isn’t about style—it’s about survival. It’s about knowing when to pull the trigger and when to walk away.
What struck me most, though, was how much Lost Stories reveals about Hammett himself. His life was chaotic, filled with illness, surveillance, and self-destruction. But in these pages, you can sense the urgency—the need to write, to get it down fast, before the whole damn thing goes up in smoke. It’s this urgency that gives the stories their edge. You’re not just reading a crime story; you’re reading a writer trying to hold the world still for a second.
And honestly? That’s what I was trying to do in 2022, too.
Lost Stories might not be Hammett’s most famous work, but in many ways, it’s his most honest. It’s what happens before a voice becomes iconic—before the genre gets codified, commodified, and cleaned up for critics. It’s pulp at its best—quick, dangerous, and unforgettable.
So, if you’ve got a taste for noir that hasn’t been over-polished, if you want to read the literary equivalent of whiskey in a coffee mug at 3AM, then Lost Stories is where you go. Just don’t expect happy endings. Expect grit. Expect betrayal. Expect a lot of smoke—and maybe, if you’re lucky, a little light breaking through the blinds.
And if you read it during a global lockdown, as I did? Well, you might just feel a little less alone in the dark.
April 17, 2019
Excellent essays; each of these lost stories is placed within a well researched context; but it makes me hungry for the stories we love by Hammett.
This book is a great addition to your favourite Hammett collections.
Great review at Kirkus:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
"KIRKUS REVIEW
Scraping the bottom of the Hammett barrel, editor Emery comes up with 21 stories, linking them and padding them out with a running commentary on the hardboiled king's life and work.
Emery's decision to avoid duplicating any of the tales reprinted in The Big Knockover, The Continental Op, Nightmare Town or the Library of America volume of Hammett's short stories costs him dearly. Most of the items are apprentice work–slight, derivative, often shorter than Emery's extended glosses, which recount facts of Hammett's life familiar from his biographies, placing them in a broader context and adding such insights as branding the not-exactly-distinctive phrase "all right" a "Hammettism." Fans looking past Joe Gores's admiring introduction will find only tantalizing references to Hammett's stories about the Op, Sam Spade or Robin Thin, and only a single curiosity (possibly not by Hammett), featuring Nick and Nora Charles. What the collection lacks in quality and heft, however, is made up in variety and–until now–rarity. Along with some paragraph-length parables and a brief account of history's great self-lovers, Emery reprints tales in which Hammett assumes the voice of a departing swain succumbing to his lady's charms ("Esther Entertains"), a South Seas adventurer recalling a native's amusing revenge against the white trader who stole his wife ("Ber-Bulu"), and an advertising copywriter proposing marriage (the hilarious "The Advertising Man Writes a Love Letter"). The effect is to cast apparently more typical hardboiled fare like "The Road Home," "The Green Elephant" and "Laughing Masks" into higher relief from the run of conventional magazine fiction on display here.
Most valuable for the light they shed on Hammett's incomparable novels, these stories are indispensable for hardcore fans."
This book is a great addition to your favourite Hammett collections.
Great review at Kirkus:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
"KIRKUS REVIEW
Scraping the bottom of the Hammett barrel, editor Emery comes up with 21 stories, linking them and padding them out with a running commentary on the hardboiled king's life and work.
Emery's decision to avoid duplicating any of the tales reprinted in The Big Knockover, The Continental Op, Nightmare Town or the Library of America volume of Hammett's short stories costs him dearly. Most of the items are apprentice work–slight, derivative, often shorter than Emery's extended glosses, which recount facts of Hammett's life familiar from his biographies, placing them in a broader context and adding such insights as branding the not-exactly-distinctive phrase "all right" a "Hammettism." Fans looking past Joe Gores's admiring introduction will find only tantalizing references to Hammett's stories about the Op, Sam Spade or Robin Thin, and only a single curiosity (possibly not by Hammett), featuring Nick and Nora Charles. What the collection lacks in quality and heft, however, is made up in variety and–until now–rarity. Along with some paragraph-length parables and a brief account of history's great self-lovers, Emery reprints tales in which Hammett assumes the voice of a departing swain succumbing to his lady's charms ("Esther Entertains"), a South Seas adventurer recalling a native's amusing revenge against the white trader who stole his wife ("Ber-Bulu"), and an advertising copywriter proposing marriage (the hilarious "The Advertising Man Writes a Love Letter"). The effect is to cast apparently more typical hardboiled fare like "The Road Home," "The Green Elephant" and "Laughing Masks" into higher relief from the run of conventional magazine fiction on display here.
Most valuable for the light they shed on Hammett's incomparable novels, these stories are indispensable for hardcore fans."
December 26, 2021
Before I read this book, all I knew about Dashiell Hammett was that he wrote The Maltese Falcon, a wonderful book and an even better movie. (He didn't write the screenplay, but large pieces of dialogue are taken from his novel almost verbatim.) This book traces Hammett's development, presenting a selection of stories in chronological order, so you can watch his transformation from a good writer to a great one.
Supplemental material explains what was going on in the world in general and in Hammett's life in particular as he wrote these remarkable stories. Some of the earlier stories even feature the kinds of analyses you might find in textbooks, not in some kind of pedantic manner, but with a conversational approach that makes the notes fascinating and fun to read.
Supplemental material explains what was going on in the world in general and in Hammett's life in particular as he wrote these remarkable stories. Some of the earlier stories even feature the kinds of analyses you might find in textbooks, not in some kind of pedantic manner, but with a conversational approach that makes the notes fascinating and fun to read.
January 12, 2020
Marked as a series since there have been so many recent collections of Hammett's work. Almost too much biography included here as the writer has been covered in almost all of the other collections. In addition a lot of comments on how and why a story was written and what it really meant. Much of the opinions of the editors is bogus. Much of their interpretations are not supported by the stories themselves.
On the whole a better selection of material as it is presented in sequence and where there have been edited versions, these are more complete. They show a wider example of Hammett's various types of stories.
On the whole a better selection of material as it is presented in sequence and where there have been edited versions, these are more complete. They show a wider example of Hammett's various types of stories.
October 7, 2025
A handful of good stories; a bunch of duds. You can clearly see Hammett's progression as an author. Unlike a lot of authors who get the "lost gems" treatment, Hammett wasn't out of print for an extended period. Most of these are "unknown" largely because a succession of editors left them out of the various collections of Hammett's work. Well done, them.
And there's a great deal of biography (and hagiography) to pad out a slim collection of stories to full book length. That's of uncertain interest, depending on why you picked this one up.
You really need to be a Hammett completionist to get full value.
And there's a great deal of biography (and hagiography) to pad out a slim collection of stories to full book length. That's of uncertain interest, depending on why you picked this one up.
You really need to be a Hammett completionist to get full value.
May 31, 2022
A mixed bag of stories by Hammett, collected from the magazines they were originally published in like Black Mask. Also provides sort of a side-by-side commentary of what was going on in Hammett's life and in the larger world at the time. Interesting things like how S.S. Van Dine's first three novels were best sellers in the late '20's and today they are virtually unheard of. (I've read them but I had to really search to find them!) This is a great book, bringing to light some of his lesser known stories and insight into his life.
March 10, 2024
Expecting a collection of little-published short stories, this book is instead a mostly enjoyable mix of Hammett and a mostly so-so analysis by the editor. Both were fine enough. Text reviews to friends included, "haven't been much reprinted and for relative good cause" and, "I'm tickled but not delighted."
There are a few true pleasures and the non-fiction is intellectually compelling. I'd have liked more of Dashiell Hammett the Pinkerton Op and less the drunk philandering Communist, but hey, that's the man.
There are a few true pleasures and the non-fiction is intellectually compelling. I'd have liked more of Dashiell Hammett the Pinkerton Op and less the drunk philandering Communist, but hey, that's the man.
May 22, 2020
This was really interesting. It was a collection of stories that are not well-known by Dashiell Hammett. It's interspersed with details of his life (which was really fascinating and somewhat tragic) and analysis of his writing style (which many modern writers and films owe a tribute to). Made me want to read The Maltese Falcon. Just a random, yet interesting read.
June 28, 2023
Interesting to see how Hammett started and how he wrote with markets in mind. Not his best material of course, but solid from the start with real human psychology. The book is filled out with some criticism and biography that occasionally feels like padding and with too much repetition, but still some nuggets there also.
June 19, 2025
I am an avid mystery reader, so I thought that these would be classic Dashiel Hammet mysteries. Instead, most of the stories were short articles, of varying genres, that he wrote for magazines. Before each article, there are biographical notes about Hammet and how his life impacted his writing. I found it an interesting read, although not what I was looking for.
November 14, 2017
The packaging is misleading. The bulk of this book consists of biographical material plus literary criticism by Vince Emery and Joe Gores. The actual stories make up less than a third of the text.
These are the stories that were not previously reprinted in books. As one might expect, the quality tends to be mediocre, but at least it is not awful, and some of it was quite fun to read. The bio material is mostly thin (but real bios are available). I found the excessive praise to be tiresome. As a whole, as one who has read most of the novels and a few stories previously, I consider this to have been worth my time.
These are the stories that were not previously reprinted in books. As one might expect, the quality tends to be mediocre, but at least it is not awful, and some of it was quite fun to read. The bio material is mostly thin (but real bios are available). I found the excessive praise to be tiresome. As a whole, as one who has read most of the novels and a few stories previously, I consider this to have been worth my time.
June 1, 2017
As a fan of Hammett, reading his first tales were a sublime treat. And, he did flash fiction before it had a name! A great book.
did-not-finish
February 13, 2020I was looking for a collection of short stories, not an over-fawning biography. I'm marking this one as a hard pass.
Read
August 13, 2021Some very short writings of Hammett, including jewelry advertisements. Along with the stories is a biography.
December 1, 2025
Hammett may be most remembered for The Maltese Falcon and his private detective Sam Spade, but it took him several years, and much personal travail before he became regarded as the inventor of the hard-boiled (such a cliche now) detective.
Joe Gore, as editor, took on the task of not only finding and restoring Hammett’s original pulp fiction stories and novellas, he researched and provides biographical information that illuminates not only Hammett’s life (which was fraught with reoccurring tuberculous, among a hard and fast lifestyle), but also sheds insight on his stories, how they came to have certain characters and situations. Basically, Gore provides readers with a special features option along with the provided stories.
Considering Hammett lacked formal education, his stories are amazingly compelling and interesting. It’s no wonder why his writing became a standard for many writers. His sparse sentences and succinct dialogue combined with the “less is more” approach make these early stories a treat, especially “Green Elephant” which showcases Hammett’s penchant for irony.
Joe Gore, as editor, took on the task of not only finding and restoring Hammett’s original pulp fiction stories and novellas, he researched and provides biographical information that illuminates not only Hammett’s life (which was fraught with reoccurring tuberculous, among a hard and fast lifestyle), but also sheds insight on his stories, how they came to have certain characters and situations. Basically, Gore provides readers with a special features option along with the provided stories.
Considering Hammett lacked formal education, his stories are amazingly compelling and interesting. It’s no wonder why his writing became a standard for many writers. His sparse sentences and succinct dialogue combined with the “less is more” approach make these early stories a treat, especially “Green Elephant” which showcases Hammett’s penchant for irony.
February 27, 2013
Anyone looking for the best detective stories of writer Dashiell Hammett will likely be disappointed by this book. These "lost" stories represent his very earliest writings, and not all of them are detective yarns; some are anecdotes or are very short satires of a form that went out of style after the 1920s. However, if you want to know more about the man who eventually wrote "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man," then it's important to read these stories and the accompanying notes and analysis by editor Vince Emery. That being said, though, it's also important to not give too much weight to Emery's words (which account for perhaps half the book) since at times he can be as chatty as he is pedantic; eventually, all stories must stand or fall on their own merits as discerned by the individual reader. At his best, though, Emery gives you a context for the stories, both in terms of society and the pulp story of the time, but also in terms of Hammett's life and health, both of which are continually mirrored in his works. For those already familiar with Hammett's novels and his Continental Op stories, these "lost" stories contain echoes of themes and motifs in their embryonic stages; the stories also reveal a writer that was in many ways much more advanced than he should have been as a beginner, something also pointed out in Emery's commentary. While this book is vital to any fan of Hammett, it is also an important book for even a casual fan of detective fiction -- seeing Hammett's earliest work, and knowing how it broke from the fictional conventions of the time, gives you a greater appreciation of how influential Hammett was on the genre, and also in the development of noir fiction and the resulting film noir.
February 13, 2017
It is interesting to reread these stories as I usually find things to ponder. The changes in style stand out.
March 23, 2015
Probably a must read if you're a Hammett fan. It's fascinating to learn about his life and early struggles as a writer and how he saw - and disdained - the typical mystery writing of the time (and all-time, really) and turned that style completely on its head. This also chronicles his development as a writer and his relationship with the various publishers who gave him a chance, and the few who held him back.
A few of the never-published stories are mediocre but most shine with his trademark crispness, surprise, and humor. It's also striking to me how some of his backdrops seem contemporary, even though written in the 20s.
Not great, like his five novels and most of his Continental Op stories, but really good.
A few of the never-published stories are mediocre but most shine with his trademark crispness, surprise, and humor. It's also striking to me how some of his backdrops seem contemporary, even though written in the 20s.
Not great, like his five novels and most of his Continental Op stories, but really good.
April 24, 2008
O.K., the less than favorable review of an american icon is simply because the way they packaged the book. You feel as if you are getting a bunch of short stories, whereas, you are getting a biography of Hammett with his "lost stories" mixed in. I have never read a D.H. novel before, but I love the movies of The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon. I enjoyed the book, but wasn't really in the mood for the biography at the time so was a little disappointed. Nice to know the author's background and what a sad life he led. You can understand why he writes the way he does.
September 23, 2009
Vince Emery gathers together, as the title suggests, 21 never-before-published-in-book-form Hammett stories, and wraps them in a long biographical sketch of the author. For the most part, the world had not been missing a lot without the stories, though they are useful to have. The biography is nicely done, and Emery does a good job of placing the stories in the context of Hammett's unfortunate career and life. Probably not for those who aren't fans of Hammett, who should read The Maltese Falcon, The Big Knockover, and The Continental Op a few times first.
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August 9, 2008This collection pulls together a variety of Hammett stories, few of which have ever been anthologized and none recently. Consequently the collection focuses on early, minor work. That’s not to say it’s bad, it is surprising to see what a good craftsman Hammett was right from the start. However, by and large this is not his top-drawer work.
http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2007...
http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2007...
February 28, 2010
A fascinating combination of biography and Hammett's early stories, many of which hadn't been collected or reprinted. The biography is really quite detailed, with notes on "Hammettisms" -- phrases or themes that appear repeatedly in stories.
This book would be good for a novice who's never read Hammett; someone interested in the history of the detective genre; or those who are familiar with him.
This book would be good for a novice who's never read Hammett; someone interested in the history of the detective genre; or those who are familiar with him.
July 14, 2014
This collection is essentially a biography (the editor obviously loves Hammett but does not balk at unpleasant truths) interspersed at the appropriate time points with stories that have never before appeared in a book. Shows Hammett's range and his grasp of human psychology. It's also fascinating to be witness to his progression as a writer and a person. But if for no other reason, read this book for Joe Gores' foreword.
August 8, 2016
I was pleasantly surprised that this book turned out to not only be a collection of rare Hammett stories but also a biography of the man. I didn't know much about him, but after reading this I admire him more than ever before. It's great to have these stories. I've only ever read one of them before, and they're all great. It's odd that he got his start writing humor pieces. I wouldn't have expected that of him. If you're a detective story fan, you need to get this right away and devour it.
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