THE SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

1944: THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

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.

Stories included:  Too Many Have Lived,  They Can Only Hang You Once,  A Man Called Spade,  The Assistant Murderer,   Night Shade,  The Judge Laughed Last,  and  His Brother's Keeper.  (Night Shade  and  The Judge Laughed Last do not appear in 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).

Stories included:  Fly Paper,   Death on Pine Street,   Zigzags of Treachery,  and The Farewell Murder.

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

Stories included:  The Whosis Kid,  The Gutting of Couffignal,  Death & Company,  One Hour, and The Tenth Clew.  

1) Spivak, 1945, digest-sized softcover

2) Dell, 1947, paperback

1946: HAMMETT HOMICIDES, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

Stories included:  The House in Turk Street,  The Girls with the Silver Eyes.  Night Shots,  The Main Death,  Two Sharp Knives,  and  Ruffian's Wife.

1) Spivak, 1946, digest-sized softcover

2) Dell, 1948, paperback

1947: DEAD YELLOW WOMEN, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

Stories included:  Dead Yellow Women,  The Golden Horseshoe,  House Dick,  Who Killed Bob Teal?,  The Green Elephant,  and  The Hairy One.

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).

Stories included: Nightmare Town,  The Scorched Face,  Albert Pastor at Home,  and  Corkscrew.   

1) Spivak, 1948, digest-sized sofcover

2) Dell, 1950, paperback

1950: THE CREEPING SIAMESE, EDITED BY ELLERY QUEEN

Stories included: Creeping Siamese,  The Man Who Killed Dan Odams,  The Nails in Mr. Cayterer,  The Joke on Eloise Morey,  Tom, Dick or Harry,  and  This King Business.

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.

Stories included:  Slippery Fingers,  The Black Hat That Wasn't There,  Woman in the Dark,  Afraid of a Gun,  Holiday,  and  The Man Who Stood in the Way.  Due to Hammett's being blacklisted as a communist sympathizer, it was eleven years before the next volume was published.

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 long hiatus, the ninth and final volume edited by Ellery Queen is released.

Stories included:  A Man Named Thin,  Wages of Crime,  The Barber and his Wife,  Itchy the Debonair,  The Second-Story Angel,  In the Morgue,  and  When Luck's Running Good.

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.

Stories included: The Gutting of Couffignal,  Fly Paper,   The Scorched Face,  This King Business,  The Gatewood Caper, Dead Yellow Women,   Corkscrew,  The Big Knockover and $106,000 Blood Money.

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).

Stories included:  The Tenth Clew,  The Golden Horseshoe,  The House in Turk Street,  The Girl With the Silver Eyes,  The Whosis Kid,  The Main Death,  and  The Farewell Murder.

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 (in print)

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).

Stories included:  Nightmare Town,  House Dick,  Ruffian's Wife,  The Man Who Killed Dan Odams,  Night Shots. Zigzags of Treachery,  The Assistant Murderer,  His Brother's Keeper,  Two Sharp Knives,  Death on Pine Street,  The Second-Story Angel,  Afraid of a Gun,  Tom Dick or Harry,  One Hour,  Who Killed Bob Teal?,  A Man Called Spade,  Too Many Have Lived,  They Can Only Hang You Once,  A Man Named Thin,  and   The First Thin Man. 

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.

Stories included:  Arson Plus,  Slippery Fingers,  Crooked Souls,  The Tenth Clew,  Zigzags of Treachery,  The House in Turk Street,  The Girl With the Silver Eyes,  Women, Politics & Murder,  The Golden Horseshoe,  Nightmare Town,  The Whosis Kid,  The Scorched Face,  Dead Yellow Women,  The Gutting of Couffignal,  The Assistant Murderer,  The Creeping Siamese,  The Big Knockover,  $106,000 Blood Money,  The Main Death,  This King Business,  Fly Paper,  The Farewell Murder,  Woman in the Dark,  Two Sharp Knives,  The Thin Man: an Early Typescript,  From the Memoirs of a Private Detective,  and  Suggestions to Detective Story Writers.

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.

Stories included: The Barber and His Wife,  The Parthian Shot, The Great Lovers,  Immortality, The Road Home, The Master Mind, The Sardonic Star of Tom Doody, The Joke on Eloise Morey Holiday, The Crusader, The Green Elephant, The Dimple, Laughing Masks, Itchy, Esther Entertains,  Another Perfect Crime, Ber-Bulu, The Advertising Man Writes a Love Letter, Night Shade, This Little Pig, The Thin Man and the Flack.  Hardcover from Vince Emery Productions.

2013: THE HUNTER AND OTHER STORIES, EDITED BY R. LAYMAN & J. RIVETT

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

Included are: The Hunter,  The Sign of Potent Pills,  The Diamond Wager,  Action and the Quiz Kid,  Fragments of Justice,  A Throne For the Worm, Magic,  Faith,  An Inch and a Half of Glory,  Nelson Redline,  Monk and Johnny Fox,  The Cure,  Seven Pages,  The Breech-Born,  The Lovely Strangers,  Week-End, On the Way, The Kiss-Off,  Devil’s Playground, On the Make, A Knife Will Cut For Anybody. Hardcover from Mysterious Press.

2012: THE RETURN OF THE THIN MAN, EDITED BY R. LAYMAN & J. 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.

Stories included:  From the Memoirs of a Private Detective,  Arson Plus,  The Tenth Clew,  Zigzags of Treachery,  The Assistant Murderer, The Man Who Killed Dan Odams,  Women, Politics and Murder,  Who Killed Bob Teal?,  Mike, Alec, or Rufus,  Nightmare Town,  Night Shots,  One Hour,  The Bodies Piled Up,  The Road Home,  Ruffian’s Wife,  The Second-Story Angel,  Afraid of a Gun.

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.