Product Description

The biggest, the boldest, the most comprehensive collection of Pulp writing ever assembled.

Weighing in at over a thousand pages, containing over forty-seven stories and two novels, this book is big baby, bigger and more powerful than a freight train—a bullet couldn’t pass through it. Here are the best stories and every major writer who ever appeared in celebrated Pulps like Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and more. These are the classic tales that created the genre and gave birth to hard-hitting detectives who smoke criminals like packs of cigarettes; sultry dames whose looks are as lethal as a dagger to the chest; and gin-soaked hideouts where conversations are just preludes to murder. This is crime fiction at its gritty best.

Including:

• Three stories by Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Dashiell Hammett.
• Complete novels from Carroll John Daly, the man who invented the hard-boiled detective, and Fredrick Nebel,
one of the masters of the form.
• A never before published Dashiell Hammett story.
• Every other major pulp writer of the time, including Paul Cain, Steve Fisher, James M. Cain, Horace McCoy, and many
many more of whom you’ve probably never heard.
• Three deadly sections–The Crimefighters, The Villains, and Dames–with three unstoppable introductions by Harlan Coben,
Harlan Ellison, and Laura Lippman

Featuring:

• Plenty of reasons for murder, all of them good.
• A kid so smart–he’ll die of it.
• A soft-hearted loan shark’s legman learning–the hard way–never to buy a strange blonde a hamburger.
• The uncanny “Moon Man” and his mad-money victims.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64729 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-06
• Released on: 2007-11-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1168 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780307280480
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
This impressive anthology of pulp-era crime stories from veteran editor and publisher Penzler reveals not only tales with surprising staying power but also some of high literary quality. To be sure, there are some selections sure to offend modern sensibilities and others whose extravagant prose now comes across as laughable or ludicrous. But aside from questions of quality and taste, these tales laid the foundation for most branches of the crime fiction genre as we know it today. Raymond Chandler's Red Wind is as effective now as it was when published in 1938. An unexpected treat is Faith, a previously unpublished Dashiell Hammett story. Multiple offerings from Erle Stanley Gardner, Hammett, Chandler and Cornell Woolrich add luster. Divided into three sections—the Crimefighters, the Villains, the Dames—with cogent intros by Penzler to each entry, this comprehensive volume allows the reader to revisit that exciting time when the pulp magazines flourished and writers pounded out fiction for a penny a word or less. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker
In the mid-nineteen-twenties, under the editor Joseph (Cap) Shaw, the magazine Black Mask turned to stories favoring character and atmosphere over intricate puzzle-plotting. Led by Dashiell Hammett, the monthly’s roster of cynical, hardboiled innovators inaugurated a golden age of American crime fiction, spilling into the pages of Dime Detective, Gun Molls, Spicy Detective, and dozens of other inexpensive publications. This huge collection of stories (plus two novels originally serialized in the pulps) aims higher than previous greatest-hits anthologies: alongside expected names like Chandler and Cain, it offers the violent primitivism of Carroll John Daly, entertaining gimmickry from Erle Stanley Gardner, and moments of inspiration in otherwise rote work by lesser writers. Penzler’s scholarship and his eclectic enthusiasm have produced an anthology designed to satisfy established fans and newcomers alike.
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From Booklist
Pulp fiction's comeback is so complete that it's hard to call it a guilty pleasure. Publishers are busily reprinting old favorites and issuing new stuff written in the manner of the old ones. And, as always, the covers are surely half of the appeal. Black Lizard has been in this business longer than most; this mammoth compilation of reprints is, paradoxically, a Vintage Books Original. And Penzler's credentials as both editor and fan can't be questioned—although genre loyalists will have fun debating his choices. Using a stringent definition of pulp, he selects mostly works that first appeared in the immortal Black Mask. Divided into three parts—Crimefighters, Villains, and Dames—the Big Book features names both beloved (Chandler, Hammett, Cain) and barely remembered (Booth, Reeves, White). There are firsts of one kind (a claimed first-ever publication of Dashiell Hammett's short story Faith) and another (a novel, The Third Murderer, by Carroll John Daly, the inventor of the hard-boiled private-eye story). It's a little less fun reading these slim things in a groaning compendium, but at least it's a paperback. And good luck finding them all on your own. Graff, Keir

Customer Reviews

Buyer Beware!
This is a terrific collection of pulp stories, no question about that. But watch out! This volume consists of two other separately published volumes, bound together in one. If you already have "Pulp Fiction : The Crimefighters" and "Pulp Fiction : The Villains", you'll be sadly disappointed by this book! (And Amazon is doing their "Buy Them Together" thing with this book and one of its two component volumes. Bad Amazon! Bad!)

Outstanding pulp collection - arguably the best one-volume
This telephone-book sized anthology (clocking in at nearly 1200 pages!) lives up to its aspiration to be "The best crime stories from the pulps in their Golden Age". It is divided into sections "The Crimefighters", "The Villians", and "The Dames", with an appropriate introduction for each. Of course, the true masters are well represented: Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett, Cornell Wollrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, James M. Cain et al. But there are plenty of lesser known authors to round things out. One oddity is "Sally the Sleuth", a comic-strip style from "Spicy Detective" - apparently created solely for the purpose of having most of her clothes ripped off. Obviously many of the best stories have been anthologized before, but can you believe there is a Hammett story that has never seen print? The only drawback is that this might be too much of a good thing -at just about three pounds, it's a real wrist-bender of a volume! There are minor illustrations scattered throughout, although I would have sacrificed a couple of stories for a selection of pulp covers. At this price, why would any pulp fan pass - go for it!

Essential, even for the casual fan
Let's say you're somewhat interested in the crime pulps of the golden age. This is basically where you should start. Due to it's massive size, you also might just end here too. Which isn't a bad thing because there isn't a throwaway in the bunch. You have your classic authors and forgotten gems.

Probably the best anthology I've ever had the joy of reading. Required reading for any mystery fan.