In his 1961 obituary in The New York Times, Dashiell Hammett was described as "the dean of the 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction." And yet in our issue for Spring 1962 he was still considered an 'uncollected author'.

Now Hammett is "widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time," which lends an interesting perspective to this article by Roger Stoddard.

It is read by John Windle.