ORIGINAL 1930 TYPED LETTER, SIGNED (re: The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key & The Thin Man) de Hammett, Dashiell - 1930

New York, 1930. Hammett, Dashiell. ONE PAGE TYPED LETTER, SIGNED ["Sincerely, Dashiell Hammett"]. 135 East 38th Street, New York, April 21st, 1930. Highly desirable unpublished early letter from one of Hammett's most creatively fruitful years in which he makes mention of all three of his greatest novels. To "Dear Mr. Hammett" (Walter Hammett of Yale University in New Haven, who had initially written wondering -- incorrectly as it turned out -- if they shared any kin), it reads: "Thanks a lot for the latest of your always kind notes. The Falcon seems to be going over pretty well and I think Earl Boothe's going to produce it on the stage in the Fall if I can get time off from the current book to do the dramatization. The next book, 'The Glass Key' is scheduled for publication in September or October, and then 'The Thin Man' and 'The Darkened Face' in February and August, 1931. Beyond that deponent saith not. Best of luck to you with the poetry and otherwise." The letter, written only two months after the book publication of THE MALTESE FALCON has some irony to it as Dashiell Hammett's precision in rattling off titles and publication dates bore no reality to what came to pass. THE GLASS KEY wouldn't be published until 1931; THE THIN MAN didn't appear until 1934. As for "The Darkened Face" -- there is a fragment of a manuscript with that title at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin. It now appears to have been a planned novel which never came to full fruition. Nor did Hammett write a stage version of THE MALTESE FALCON for Earl Boothe; instead the novel was almost immediately adapted to film, released by Warner Brothers Studios as a pre-code 1931 crime drama full of sexual innuendo starring Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. The Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett 1921-1960 (edited by Richard Layman) were indeed "selected from nearly one thousand letters" yet only a mere four letters date - as this letter does -- from 1930, the year Hammett published THE MALTESE FALCON. Apart from two neat folds, the letter is in Fine, crisp condition. Custom slipcase.. Signed by Author. Fine.