This is a list of nonfiction books about hardboiled detective and crime fiction that was mostly (but not exclusively) written by Americans mostly (but not exclusively) in the 1930s, 1940s, and into the 1950s, many of which became the basis of noir films. The majority of these writers got their start writing in the pulps.

There are a lot of excellent lists available devoted to noir and hardboiled crime fiction. This is not one of them. All of the books on this list must instead be nonfiction. They are about literary facts surrounding the genre known as hardboiled fiction. I will delete from the list all books of fiction and of way off tangent subjects.