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Lost Stories

Page history last edited by barry_ergang@... 12 years, 11 months ago

Hammett, Dashiell - Lost Stories (2005)

 

I finally bought this beautifully made book and so far (about 1/4 the way through) am not regretting the purchase. It contains 20 or so of Hammett's stories that have not been seen outside of their original magazine covers, until this collection. Vince Emery is the editor and writes a running literary/biographical commentary before and after each of the stories. Apparently he has some background in advertising and marketing (hence this stunning gem of a book) and is a great Hammett fan.

 

Emery believes that Hammett is the most influential American writer of the 20th Century and darn if he hasn't pretty much almost convinced me.

 

Another Mike Grost sighting. On page 63 Emery quotes an observation on Hammett's writing from Mike Grost's website.

 

There are plenty of insightful reviews of this book at various places on the internet. I just typed in "Hammett lost stories" on Google and found a bunch. They convinced me to go out and buy the book.

 

Bob Schneider

____________________________________________

 

I finished this book today, and I have to agree with Bob's comments about its construction and content.

 

It contains 21 stories—though in a handful of cases calling them stories rather than vignettes is stretching the point—not all of which are mystery/crime tales. Some display Hammett's more "literary" side, harbingers of those aspects of his later work that readers and critics have seized upon to justify his "legitimacy" as a writer of substance and significance—as if any justification were needed! Some—e.g., "Laughing Masks"—are wonderful examples of pulp action/suspense stories. Many have not been seen since they first appeared in print. Others have been reprinted, but in abridged or extended versions, depending on the whims of presumptuous editors. Fred Dannay is mentioned more than once as being notorious for "editing"—which is to say trimming—the works of established authors he reprinted in Mystery League and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

 

Perhaps the most intriguing point editor/commentator Vince Emery makes is that Hammett became a writer from necessity rather than from compulsion. There was absolutely nothing in his past to indicate even the slightest literary inclination. That he was never a hack but rather a conscious craftsman who took pride in his work (as his fictional sleuths took pride in theirs) is further testament to his achievements. Despite Carroll John Daly's preceding him into the pages of Black Mask by a matter of weeks, it is Hammett who genuinely deserves to be called the father of the hardboiled mystery* story, perhaps even of the truly American mystery story. Three-Gun Terry Mack and, subsequently, Race Williams, in Daly's clumsy prose, brought a fanciful wild-west sensibility to urban settings, whereas Hammett's carefully-wrought plots and prose made them more real and believable.

 

Hammett's importance as an influential Twentieth Century writer, as Emery points out, is undeniable. (A debate has apparently raged for years about who influenced whom, Hammett or Hemingway. I've long felt that in The Glass Key, which I consider his greatest novel, Hammett outdid Hemingway at his own game. According to the evidence Emery provides, Hammett published quite a number of short stories before Hemingway arrived on the scene.) Like Raymond Chandler, whom I'd also nominate as a major influence both in and out of the mystery field on many of his contemporaries and successors—originators and imitators alike—Hammett's style and vision has had a profound effect on writers in America and around the world.

 

Lost Stories is highly recommended.

 

—Barry Ergang, June 4, 2007

 

  • I use the term mystery here in its broadest sense, since not all of Hammett's crime tales contained fairly-clued puzzles.

 

 

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