Dashiell_Hammett_10_Short_Story

The first of what would eventually become nine collections edited and introduced by Frederick Dannay (Ellery Queen). Also released as They Can Only Hang You Once, and in a pared-down version: A Man Called Spade.

1) Spivak, 1943, digest-sized softcover

2) World, 1944, hardback with dust jacket

3) Dell, 1945, paperback

4) Spivak, 1948, digest-sized softcover

5) Dell, 1950, paperback

1945: THE CONTINENTAL OP, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

Not to be confused with 1974's The Continental Op, edited by Steven Marcus (see below).

1) Spivak, 1945, digest-sized softcover

2) Dell, 1946, paperback

3) Spivak, 1949 digest-sized softcover

1945: RETURN OF THE CONTINENTAL OP, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

1) Spivak, 1945, digest-sized softcover

2) Dell, 1947, paperback

1946: HAMMETT HOMICIDES, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

1) Spivak, 1946, digest-sized softcover

2) Dell, 1948, paperback

1947: DEAD YELLOW WOMEN, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

1) Spivak, 1947, digest-sized softcover

2) Dell, 1949, paperback

3) French edition (details unknown)

1948: NIGHTMARE TOWN, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

Not to be confused with 1999's Nightmare Town, edited by McCauley, Greenberg & Gorman (see below).

1) Spivak, 1948, digest-sized sofcover

2) Dell, 1950, paperback

1950: THE CREEPING SIAMESE, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

1) Spivak, 1950, digest-sized softcover

2) Dell, 1950, paperback

1951: WOMAN IN THE DARK, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

Not to be confused with 1988's Woman in the Dark, introduced by Robert B. Parker, which contained the title story only.

1) Spivak, 1951, digest-sized softcover

(This collection was never released in any other editions)

1962: A MAN NAMED THIN, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

After an 11-year hiatus, the ninth and final volume edited by Ellery Queen is released.

1) Ferman, 1962, digest-sized softcover

(This collection was never released in any other editions)

1966: THE BIG KNOCKOVER, EDITED BY LILLIAN HELLMAN

The first hardback Hammett collection from a major publisher. During his lifetime, Hammett resisted all efforts to reprint his short stories in a “prestige format,” although he didn't mind them reappearing in paperbacks and cheap hardbacks, which he considered disposable reading matter.

Also included is “Tulip,” an unfinished novel fragment written in Hammett's later years, when he was attempting “serious” novels.

1) Random House, 1966, hardback with dust jacket

2) Cassell, 1966, hardback with dust jacket (retitled in the UK)

3 & 4) In 1967, Dell split the hardback into two paperback volumes. The first was titled The Big Knockover, and the second was The Continental Op: More Stories from The Big Knockover.

5) Penguin, 1970, paperback

6) Vintage, 1972, paperback

7) Penguin, 1972. paperback

8) Penguin, 1981, paperback

9) Penguin, 1987, paperback

10) Vintage Crime, 1989, trade paperback

11) Orion, 2005, trade paperback

12) Orion, 2012, trade paperback

13) French edition: Gallimard, 1968

14) Spanish edition: Editorial Brugeria, 1977

1974: THE CONTINENTAL OP, EDITED BY STEVEN MARCUS

Not to be confused with 1945's The Continental Op, edited by Ellery Queen (see above).

1) Random House, 1974, hardback with dust jacket

2) Macmillan, 1974, hardback with dust jacket

3) Pan, 1977, paperback

4) Picador, 1984, paperback

5) Vintage Crime, 1989, trade paperback

6) Vintage Crime / Black Lizard, trade paperback

7) Orion, 2004, trade paperback

8) Orion, 2012, trade paperback

This leatherbound edition of The Continental Op (above) is something of an oddity. Issued by the Franklin Library in 1984, it contains the seven stories selected by Steven Marcus, but omits his introduction. Instead, this booklet (right), attributed only to "The Editors" is inserted. The booklet includes a short Hammett biography and a discussion of each of the stories.

1999: NIGHTMARE TOWN, EDITED McCAULEY, GREENBERG & GORMAN

Not to be confused with 1948's Nightmare Town, edited by Ellery Queen (see above).

1) Knopf, 1999, hardback with dust jacket

2) Vintage Crime / Black Lizard, 1999, trade paperback (in print)

3) Picador, 2002, paperback

4) Editorium. 2008

2001: CRIME STORIES AND OTHER WRITINGS, SELECTED BY STEVEN MARCUS

The most ambitious Hammett collection yet. Almost all the stories are the original Black Mask text, rather than the edited and altered versions that have appeared in other collections.

Library of America, 2001, hardback with dust jacket

2005: VINTAGE HAMMETT (EDITOR NOT ATTRIBUTED)

Sort of a Hammett sampler, this trade paperback from Vintage Books contain the short stories The House in Turk Street, The Girl with the Silver Eyes, Fly Paper and Night Shade, as well as excerpts from all five novels.

2005: LOST STORIES, EDITED BY VINCE EMERY

Twenty-one long out of print Hammett stories, many from the earliest days of his writing career.

2013: THE HUNTER AND OTHER STORIES, EDITED BY RICHARD LAYMAN & JULIE M. RIVETT

This collection consists of both rare and never-before-published Hammett stories, along with some of his Hollywood screen treatments.

2012: THE RETURN OF THE THIN MAN, EDITED BY RICHARD LAYMAN & JULIE M. RIVETT

1) Mysterious Press, 2012, hardback with dust jacket

2) Head of Zeus, 2013, hardback with dust jacket

3) Thorndyke Press, 2013, hardback with dust jacket

2009: DETECTIVE STORIES (EDITOR NOT ATTRIBUTED)

The good news: this collection uses the original pulp texts (as found in Crime Stories and Other Writings). The bad news: numerous typos.

Trade paperback from Coyote Canyon Press.

Strictly speaking, these are not short stories, but rather the screen treatments that eventually became the second and third movies in the Thin Man franchise.