Books

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931. First printing. Very good plus in very good minus jacket.. First edition of Hammett's fourth book, an inspiration for the Coen brothers and one of the author's personal favorites among his own works. A brutal and realistic portrait of the corrupt political life of a Prohibition-era American city, THE GLASS KEY is a hard-boiled masterpiece of strained and twisted loyalties, its regular outbreaks of violence the byproduct of the relentlessly suppressed inner lives of men who may be supposed — but never clearly seen — to have them. The novel was a major influence on Joel and Ethan Coen's bleak noir MILLERS CROSSING, which takes up Hammett's so-called objective method to great effect in translating to film a protagonist who never lets on why he does what he does, not even to himself. THE MALTESE FALCON is more famous and THE THIN MAN widely loved, but THE GLASS KEY "is the peak of Hammett's achievement, which is to say the peak of the crime writer's…

The Glass Key is a novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally published in 1931. This work is a classic of the hard-boiled detective fiction genre and is noted for its gritty portrayal of corruption and political influence.

First editions of 'The Glass Key' published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1931 typically have the publisher's borzoi dog logo on the copyright page and lack subsequent printings or editions mentioned.