Moonlight, slanting through the window, became a white pattern...

December 4, 2017 3:32 AM

'The Glass That Laughed' a new story by Dashiell Hammett
posted by fearfulsymmetry (8 comments total)

Impressive work for a man 56 years dead.
posted by at by at 4:07 AM on December 4, 2017 [9 favorites]

FTA:

Then, in September 2017 Hammett’s granddaughter, Julie Rivett, co-editor with me on The Big Book of the Continental Op, sent an email saying she had just read a notice on the Dashiell Hammett Reading Group Facebook page posted by Kevin Burton Smith, founder of The Thrilling Detective Web Site, stating that an unnamed fan had come across a previously unrecorded story by Hammett in True Police Stories. The title, “The Glass That Laughed,” and the magazine were unfamiliar to us. Julie asked Kevin to put us in contact with his correspondent. The next day I received a call from Daniel Robinson, a fireman and author, who agreed to sell me the November 1925 issue of True Police Stories, a short-lived magazine published monthly from May 1924 to April 1926 “under the auspices of the International Police Conference” as an “organ of the New York Police Department.” Three days later the package arrived. It was Hammett all right.


Can't speak to the accuracy of the authentication process of this "unearthed" story, though.
posted by papafrita at 5:58 AM on December 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

There were quite a lot of these types of magazines, and he could certainly have made some money sending in a story or two, which means maybe there's a chance that there are more out there.
posted by eye of newt at 6:16 AM on December 4, 2017

From what I've read about early to mid-20th century fiction writers, they often churned out a ton of short stories to magazines to keep cash flow going while they worked on novels. Novels were what they wanted to be writing but short stories were where the money was.
posted by octothorpe at 6:54 AM on December 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Similar advice I received when I was first doing freelance writing - write magazine articles for the pay, books for the ego.
posted by drewbage1847 at 7:36 AM on December 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Reminds me of The Tell-Tale Heart by Poe.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 11:58 AM on December 4, 2017

TIL Dashiell Hammett who I know only by repute wasn't a woman.

Amazing to dig up an author's undiscovered or forgotten story like this.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 6:30 PM on December 4, 2017

Not at all surprising. John D MacDonald had a similar issue, where he knew he'd written stories but had written so many, so fast, under several names, for so many magazines (many very short-lived) that not even he knew what exactly he'd done. It took a few decades to track down everything, and that was starting before he died and with his cooperation and personal files.

Great news, though.
posted by Palindromedary at 8:43 PM on December 4, 2017