The Thin Man

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1934.

Price: $4,500.00

Hardcover. First edition. The usual sunning to the pale green boards, else fine in a very good dustwrapper with fading to the spine and part of the front panel, along with wear at the edges. The jacket was issued in four states: in both green and red, each color jacket issued with and without blurbs on the front flap. This is the green state without reviews. No one has definitively determined priorities, but it is the accepted wisdom in the trade that the reviewless-copies precede. Despite some wear, a nice copy of a classic title. Basis for a series of films featuring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, which were the last word in sophisticated and humorous detective movies.

Item #424370

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Item #424370 The Thin Man. Dashiell HAMMETT.
The Thin Man

Dashiell Hammett
birth name: Samuel Dashiell Hammett
born: 5/27/1894
died: 1/10/1961

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Biography

American writer who helped to create the hard-boiled school of detective fiction. - Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literaturemore

Collecting tips:

Hammett wrote just five novels that were published in hardcover: Red Harvest (1929), The Dain Curse (1930), The Maltese Falcon (1930), The Glass Key (1931), and The Thin Man (1934) over a period of only five years, and then spent the 26 remaining years of his life drinking, and generally being annoying. He did however, write a lot of stories that were collected in paperback, or after his death. All of the first four are especially uncommon in fine condition and in jackets. The Glass Key was first published in England, which not too many people know, in a very small edition, and with different jacket art. Both that book and a fine jacketed copy of the The Maltese Falcon demand and deserve a premium when you go to buy one. The Thin Man is less rare, but still pricey, and comes in four variants of the jacket -- either green or red, and with or without reviews on the jacket flaps. The front panel jacket photograph on all variants is of Hammett himself, doing a fair job looking dapper yet macilent. No one knows for sure what the priority is, but dealers invariably claim primacy for the copy they happen to have in stock at the moment. We lean towards the red jacket without blurbs, but condition is the important thing and we'd probably still take any nice copy that came along.

We also offer a comprehensive Dashiell Hammett Bibliography and Price Guide.more