The Hard-Boiled Explicator

During the past thirty years, that uniquely American artform known as the hard-boiled mystery novel has come under increasing scrutiny by critics, scholars, and students alike. Literally hundrends of articles and books have been devoted to the subject, particularly to its three major practitioners, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross Macdonald. Now, for the first time, those interested in this field have available to them a carefully constructed guide to the wealth of information on this subject. The Hard-Boiled Explicator will be of immense value to librarians, scholars, students, and mystery oficionados. Cloth edition published in 1985. Paperback version available June 2002.

Robert E. Skinner, a collector of early hard-boiled fiction and an accomplished historian, has published numerous articles on history and American detective fiction in professional periodicals and popular magazines.