The Hard-Boiled Explicator: A Guide to the Study of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald

by Robert Skinner

During the past thirty years, that uniquely American artform known as the hard-boiled mystery novel has come under increasing scrutiny by critics, scholars, and students alike. Literally hundrends of articles and books have been devoted to the subject, particularly to its three major practitioners, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross Macdonald. Now, for the first time, those interested in this field have available to them a carefully constructed guide to the wealth of information on this subject.

The Hard-Boiled Explicator will be of immense value to librarians, scholars, students, and mystery oficionados. Cloth edition published in 1985. Paperback version available June 2002.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Aka Robert E. Skinner.

Robert Skinner has degrees in history (Old Dominion University) and library science (Indiana University) and studied creative writing at the University of New Orleans. He’s widely known for his non-fiction writing on the career of African-American novelist Chester Himes and on the American hard-boiled crime story. He makes his home in New Orleans where he’s University Librarian at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a bit dated now in many ways, but provided a lot of bibliographic information.