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The Continental Op
The Continental Op is a fictional character created by Dashiell Hammett. He is a private investigator employed as an operative of the Continental Detective Agency's San Francisco office. The stories are all told in the first person and his name is never given. Profile The Continental Op is a master of deceit in the exercise of his occupation. In his 1927 '' Black Mask'' story "$106,000 Blood Money" the Op is confronted with two dilemmas: should he expose a corrupt fellow detective, thereby hurting the reputation of his agency; and should he also allow an informant to collect the $106,000 reward in a big case even though he is morally certain—but cannot prove—that the informant has murdered one of his agency's clients? The Op resolves his two problems neatly by manipulating events so that the corrupt detective and the informant get into an armed confrontation in which both are killed. Decades of witnessing human cruelty, misery, and ruin, as well as being instrumental in sen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dell Books
Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, ''I Confess'', and soon began turning out dozens of pulp magazines, which included penny-a-word detective stories, articles about films, and romance books (or "smoochies" as they were known in the slang of the day). During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Dell was one of the largest publishers of magazines, including pulp magazines. Their line of humor magazines included '' 1000 Jokes'', launched in 1938. From 1929 to 1974, they published comics under the Dell Comics line, the bulk of which (1938–68) was done in partnership with Western Publishing. In 1943, Dell entered into paperback book publishing with Dell Paperbacks. They also used the book imprints of Dial Press, Delacorte Books, Delacorte Press, Yearling Books, and Laurel Leaf Library. Dell was acquired ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ross Macdonald
Ross Macdonald was the main pseudonym used by the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar (; December 13, 1915 – July 11, 1983). He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in Southern California and featuring private detective Lew Archer. Since the 1970s, Macdonald's works (particularly the Archer novels) have received attention in academic circles for their psychological depth, sense of place, use of language, sophisticated imagery and integration of philosophy into genre fiction. Brought up in the province of Ontario, Canada, Macdonald eventually settled in the state of California, where he died in 1983. Life Millar was born in Los Gatos, California, and raised in his Canadian parents' native Kitchener, Ontario. ''Millar'' was a Scots spelling of the surname Miller, and the author pronounced his name ''Miller'' rather than ''Millar''. When his father abandoned the family unexpectedly when Millar was four years old, he and his mother live ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Maltese Falcon (novel)
''The Maltese Falcon'' is a 1930 detective novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine '' Black Mask'' beginning with the September 1929 issue. The story is told entirely in external third-person narrative; there is no description whatsoever of any character's thoughts or feelings, only what they say and do, and how they look. The novel has been adapted several times for the cinema. The main character, Sam Spade (who also appeared later in some lesser-known short stories), was a departure from Hammett's nameless detective, The Continental Op. Spade combined several features of previous detectives, notably his cold detachment, keen eye for detail, unflinching and sometimes ruthless determination to achieve his own form of justice, and a complete lack of sentimentality. In 1990 the novel ranked 10th in Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time list by the Crime Writers' Association. Five years later, in a similar list by Mystery Writers of America, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
True Detective (magazine)
''True Detective'' (originally ''True Detective Mysteries'') was an American true crime magazine published from 1924 to 1995. It initiated the true crime magazine genre, and during its peak from the 1940s to the early 1960s it sold millions of copies and spawned numerous imitators. History ''True Detective Mysteries'' was founded in 1924 by publisher Bernarr Macfadden.Murley 2008, pp. 12–13. It initially focused on mystery fiction, with a mix of non-fiction crime stories. In the 1930s, Macfadden realized the popularity of the non-fiction pieces and gradually phased out fiction. As such, ''True Detective Mysteries'' became the first true crime magazine. In 1941, Macfadden changed the name to ''True Detective'', emphasizing the magazine's move away from mystery fiction. ''True Detective'' non-fiction stories retained some of the tone and style of noir fiction and mystery writing, laying the ground for subsequent true crime genre conventions. The magazine had few ambitions to purve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard is the corporate amalgamation of Random House's Vintage Crime, and Random House's 1990 acquisition, Black Lizard, a major publisher of classic crime fiction. History Vintage Crime/Black Lizard was founded in June 1990 after Random House's acquisition of Black Lizard, the publishing company created by Donald S. Ellis and Barry Gifford. Before the acquisition Vintage Books was publishing the work of American mystery-authors such as Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler under Vintage Crime. As a result of the unification Random House came into the possession of the literature of Jim Thompson, and David Goodis, along with that of many other noir writers. Vintage Crime/Black Lizard is one of the preeminent publishers of crime fiction in the United States and asserts that it remains devoted to the best of "classic crime", having added Eric Ambler, Chester Himes and Ross Macdonald to their list of authors. Recent Publications A list of con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Library Of America
The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors ranging from Mark Twain to Philip Roth, Nathaniel Hawthorne to Saul Bellow, including selected writing of several U.S. presidents. Overview and history The ''Bibliothèque de la Pléiade'' ("La Pléiade") series published in France provided the model for the LOA, which was long a dream of critic and author Edmund Wilson. The initial organizers included American academic Daniel Aaron,Cromie, William J., Ken Gewertz, Corydon Ireland, and Alvin Powell"Honorary degrees awarded at Commencement's Morning Exercises", ''Harvard Gazette''. June 7, 2007. Lawrence Hughes, Helen Honig Meyer, and Roger W. Straus Jr. The initial board of advisers included Robert Penn Warren, C. Vann Woodward, R. W. B. Lewis, Robert Coles, Irving Howe, and Eudora Wel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Publishing
The World Publishing Company was an American publishing company. The company published genre fiction, trade paperbacks, children's literature, nonfiction books, textbooks, Bibles, and dictionaries,"WORLD PUBLISHING CO." ''The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History''. Accessed Mar. 3, 2017. primarily from 1940 to 1980. Authors published by World Publishing Company include , , , |
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1929 by American crime fiction writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee and the name of their main fictional character, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve baffling murders. Dannay and Lee wrote most of the more than thirty novels and several short story collections in which Ellery Queen appeared as a character, and their books were among the most popular of American mysteries published between 1929 and 1971. In addition to the fiction featuring their eponymous brilliant amateur detective, the two men acted as editors: as Ellery Queen they edited more than thirty anthologies of crime fiction and true crime, and Dannay founded and for many decades edited ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', which has been published continuously from 1941 to the present. From 1961, Dannay and Lee also commissioned other authors to write crime thrillers using the Ellery Queen ''nom de plume'', but not featuring ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercury Publications
{{short description, American publisher of fiction periodicals Mercury Publications (a.k.a. Mercury Press) was a magazine publishing company,initially owned and operated by Lawrence E. Spivak, which mainly published genre fiction in digest-sized formats. The focus of Spivak's line was on detective and mystery stories and novels, but it also included magazines about humor, fantasy, and true crime. The offices were located at 570 Lexington Avenue in New York, N.Y. (in later years in Cornwall, Connecticut). Spivak entered publishing in 1933 as the business manager of ''The American Mercury'', and two years later, he became the magazine's publisher, expanding his operations in the late 1930s with additional titles. His subsidiary companies included Mystery House and Fantasy House. Two Mercury series were Mercury Library and Mercury Books. Other Mercury imprints and titles included: *Bestseller Mystery Books (a.k.a. Bestseller Library) *''Bestsellers'' magazine (beginning 1945), subti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred A
Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interlude)" and "Alfred (Outro)", songs by Eminem from the 2020 album ''Music to Be Murdered By'' Business and organisations * Alfred, a radio station in Shaftesbury, England *Alfred Music, an American music publisher *Alfred University, New York, U.S. *The Alfred Hospital, a hospital in Melbourne, Australia People * Alfred (name) includes a list of people and fictional characters called Alfred * Alfred the Great (848/49 – 899), or Alfred I, a king of the West Saxons and of the Anglo-Saxons Places Antarctica * Mount Alfred (Antarctica) Australia * Alfredtown, New South Wales * County of Alfred, South Australia Canada * Alfred and Plantagenet, Ontario * Alfred Island, Nunavut * Mount Alfred, British Columbia United States * Alfred, Maine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Harvest
''Red Harvest'' (1929) is a novel by Dashiell Hammett. The story is narrated by the Continental Op, a frequent character in Hammett's fiction, much of which is drawn from his own experiences as an operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency (fictionalized as the Continental Detective Agency). The plot follows the Op's investigation of several murders amid a labor dispute in a corrupt Montana mining town. Some of the novel was inspired by the Anaconda Road massacre, a 1920 labor dispute in the mining town of Butte, Montana. ''Time'' included ''Red Harvest'' in its 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005, noting that, in the Continental Op, Hammett "created the prototype for every sleuth who would ever be called 'hard-boiled.'" The Nobel Prize-winning author André Gide called the book "a remarkable achievement, the last word in atrocity, cynicism, and horror." Plot The Continental Op is called to Personville (known as "Poisonville" to the locals) by the newspaper pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The House In Turk Street
"The House in Turk Street" is an early short story by Dashiell Hammett, featuring the Continental Op. It was first published in ''Black Mask'' in April 1924. This story indicates Hammett was turning towards themes of increasing violence in his stories, and its savagery has been commented upon, particularly the massacre which occurs at the end. The story was loosely adapted into the film '' No Good Deed'', directed by Bob Rafelson Robert Jay Rafelson (February 21, 1933 – July 23, 2022) was an American film director, writer, and producer. He is regarded as one of the key figures in the founding of the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s. Among his best-known films as a .... Plot On a routine canvass of Turk Street in San Francisco, the Continental Op is invited into the home of the Quarres, an elderly couple. The Op is given a cup of tea and a cigar, but his interview of the Quarres is suddenly interrupted by a man with a gun, who believes he is the target of the Op's search. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
