Andrew,
Re your question below:
> Thanks very much, Marc! I don't have the
Layman
> book, so in a nutshell, were
> these revisions major? Did they "improve"
the
> original versions, in your
> opinion?
Not really major, no. And the third and last
"Continental Op' novel, BLOOD MONEY, wasn't revised at all.
Like RH and TDC, it had first appeared in two installments
(entitled "The Big Knockover" and
"$106,000 Blood Money") in BLACK MASK (in fact, its magazine
appearance, predates the magazine appearances of RH and TDC,
though it was the last published in book form). When BLOOD
MONEY was finally published in book form in the '40's,
Hammett was in the Army and unavailable to do
revisions.
In fact, all of Hammett's novels except for THE THIN MAN were
serialized in BLACK MASK prior to being published as
books.
The interesting thing about this is that the editor of BLACK
MASK, Joseph T. Shaw, didn't like serials in BLACK MASK, so
any novel that was serialized in his magazine had to be
written so that each installment could stand on its own as a
short story. Of the five Hammett novels published in BM, only
THE MALTESE FALCON was written as a straightforward story.
All the other novels were written so that each part could
stand on its own as a short story. That why the article you
read referred to them as "linked novellettes" rather than
serial chapters.
Hammett's revisions for book publication usually amounted to
trying to conceal the seams. He was largely successful, in my
opinion, with RH and THE GLASS KEY, less successful with the
clearly episodic TDC. Of course, the much shorter BM, made up
of only two installments, wasn't revised at all.
JIM DOHERTY
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