Happy to join this growing list. I've been a fan of hardboiled writing for several years. Not sure how my fave authors rank according to your standards, but I'm a big fan of Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Dashielle Hammett, Raymond Chandler (just completed the book of his letters), Andrew Vachss, and Lawrence Block. During a recent internet search I came up with an article about Eugene Izzi having hung himself. Vachss mentioned his work as being a favorite of his. I had never heard of Eugene Izzi...so, natch, I'm curious. Anybody know anything about him? Like the owner of this list, I'm hung up on gangster lingo and collect dictionaries of same. Anyone have anything along those lines they're ready to let go of, I'd love to hear from you. Best, Sandra Hess shess@sirius.com who lives on a not so mean street of San Francisco - # RARA-AVIS: To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" # to majordomo@icomm.ca