Maltese Falcon Society
Encyclopedia
The Maltese Falcon Society is an organization for admirers of Dashiell Hammett
, his novel The Maltese Falcon, and hardboiled
mystery books and writers in general. Founded in San Francisco in 1981, the organization is no longer active in the United States
; however, a chapter in Japan
has been active continuously since 1982. The Japanese branch of the society presents the Falcon Award, Japan's highest honor in the mystery field, to honor the best hardboiled mystery novel published in Japan.
The society opened chapters in New York and Japan. By 1982, the society had 110 members in San Francisco, 55 in Japan, and 50 in New York. As its official toast, the society adopted the one used by Sam Spade in Chapter 2 of The Maltese Falcon: "Success to crime."
The San Francisco chapter meetings heard presentations by mystery novelists Julie Smith, Charles Willeford
, Stephen Greenleaf, and Joe Gores
. Other speakers included Hammett biographers Diane Johnson
and William F. Nolan
, bounty hunter Tiny Boyles, people who knew Hammett including Jerome Weidman
, and coroners, crime reporters, FBI agents, and bail bondsmen. The San Francisco chapter also staged special events, such as a "shootout" conducted at the 1981 Marin Designers Showcase in Mill Valley, California, which resulted in the police being called.
The New York chapter became inactive in the late 1980s. The fifth anniversary meeting of the San Francisco chapter was held May 27, 1986, on the 92nd anniversary of Hammett's birth, and it was the chapter's last. The author's daughter Jo Hammett was the final speaker.
By 1990, only the Japanese chapter of The Maltese Falcon Society was still active. In 2006, the Japanese chapter produced a large-format softcover book in Japanese, The Complete Maltese Falcon Flyer 1982-2006, which includes the first 250 issues of the newsletter with new introductions by Don Herron and other writers. In 2009, with about 90 members, the Japanese chapter continues to hold meetings in Tokyo and Osaka, to produce The Maltese Falcon Flyer, and to present the Falcon Award.
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
, his novel The Maltese Falcon, and hardboiled
Hardboiled
Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...
mystery books and writers in general. Founded in San Francisco in 1981, the organization is no longer active in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
; however, a chapter in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
has been active continuously since 1982. The Japanese branch of the society presents the Falcon Award, Japan's highest honor in the mystery field, to honor the best hardboiled mystery novel published in Japan.
Beginnings
The Maltese Falcon Society was founded in San Francisco on May 20, 1981 by literary historian and biographer Don Herron and private investigator Jayson Wechter. The society's first meeting was held at John's Grill, a restaurant where Dashiell Hammett ate and which he featured in The Maltese Falcon. The speakers at that first meeting were David Fechheimer, a Hammett researcher and private investigator, and E. Hoffmann Price, a pulp fiction author.The society opened chapters in New York and Japan. By 1982, the society had 110 members in San Francisco, 55 in Japan, and 50 in New York. As its official toast, the society adopted the one used by Sam Spade in Chapter 2 of The Maltese Falcon: "Success to crime."
Activities
William Nadel of the New York chapter conducted a Dashiell Hammett/Thin Man walking tour of Manhattan. Founded by mystery writer Jiro Kimura, the Japanese chapter produced a newsletter called The Maltese Falcon Flyer ten times a year, and in 1983 began to present the annual Falcon Award.The San Francisco chapter meetings heard presentations by mystery novelists Julie Smith, Charles Willeford
Charles Willeford
Charles Ray Willeford III was an American writer. An author of fiction, poetry, autobiography, and literary criticism, Willeford is best known for his series of novels featuring hardboiled detective Hoke Moseley. The first Hoke Moseley book, Miami Blues , is considered one of its era's most...
, Stephen Greenleaf, and Joe Gores
Joe Gores
Joe Gores was an American mystery writer...
. Other speakers included Hammett biographers Diane Johnson
Diane Johnson
Diane Johnson is an American-born novelist and essayist whose satirical novels often feature American heroines living abroad in contemporary France....
and William F. Nolan
William F. Nolan
William Francis Nolan is an American author, who wrote stories in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. He is best known for coauthoring the novel Logan's Run, with George Clayton Johnson. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1976 horror film Burnt Offerings which starred Karen Black and...
, bounty hunter Tiny Boyles, people who knew Hammett including Jerome Weidman
Jerome Weidman
Jerome Weidman was an American playwright and novelist. He collaborated with George Abbott on the book for the musical Fiorello! with music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick...
, and coroners, crime reporters, FBI agents, and bail bondsmen. The San Francisco chapter also staged special events, such as a "shootout" conducted at the 1981 Marin Designers Showcase in Mill Valley, California, which resulted in the police being called.
The New York chapter became inactive in the late 1980s. The fifth anniversary meeting of the San Francisco chapter was held May 27, 1986, on the 92nd anniversary of Hammett's birth, and it was the chapter's last. The author's daughter Jo Hammett was the final speaker.
By 1990, only the Japanese chapter of The Maltese Falcon Society was still active. In 2006, the Japanese chapter produced a large-format softcover book in Japanese, The Complete Maltese Falcon Flyer 1982-2006, which includes the first 250 issues of the newsletter with new introductions by Don Herron and other writers. In 2009, with about 90 members, the Japanese chapter continues to hold meetings in Tokyo and Osaka, to produce The Maltese Falcon Flyer, and to present the Falcon Award.
Falcon Awards
The Falcon Award is awarded by the members of the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan for the best hardboiled novel published in Japan. The winning author receives a certificate of merit and a falcon sculpture crafted in wood.- 1983 Early AutumnEarly AutumnEarly Autumn is a 1926 novel by Louis Bromfield. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1927.-Plot synopsis:The novel is set in the fictional Massachusetts town of Durham shortly after World War I. The Pentland family is rich and part of the upper class, but their world is rapidly changing...
by Robert B. ParkerRobert B. ParkerRobert Brown Parker was an American crime writer. His most famous works were the novels about the private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the late 1980s; a series of TV movies based on the character were also... - 1984 The Old Dick by L.A. Morse
- 1985 The Wrong Case by James CrumleyJames CrumleyJames Arthur Crumley was the author of violent hardboiled crime novels and several volumes of short stories and essays, as well as published and unpublished screenplays...
- 1986 HammettHammettHammett is a 1982 homage to noir films and pulp fiction directed by Wim Wenders. The film is a fictionalized story about writer Dashiell Hammett, based on the novel of the same name by Joe Gores...
by Joe GoresJoe GoresJoe Gores was an American mystery writer... - 1987 When the Sacred Ginmill ClosesWhen the Sacred Ginmill ClosesWhen the Sacred Ginmill Closes is a Matthew Scudder novel, written by Lawrence Block. Based on the short story "By the Dawn's Early Light", and published four years after Eight Million Ways to Die, this novel resurrected Block's interest in the character and led to his writing 10 more titles in the...
by Lawrence BlockLawrence BlockLawrence Block is an acclaimed contemporary American crime writer best known for two long-running New York–set series, about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, respectively... - 1988 Hard LineHard LineHard Line is a 1985 album by the American band The Blasters.-Track listing:All track written by Dave Alvin unless otherwise noted.#"Trouble Bound" #"Just Another Sunday" #"Hey, Girl" #"Dark Night"#"Little Honey"...
by Michael Z. LewinMichael Z. LewinMichael Zinn Lewin is an American writer of mystery fiction primarily known for his series about Albert Samson, a distinctly low-keyed, non-hardboiled private detective who plies his trade from a modest walk-up apartment in Indianapolis, Indiana... - 1989 StregaStrega (novel)Strega is a hardboiled detective novel written by American author and attorney Andrew Vachss, first published in 1987. The story features the pursuit and destruction by the protagonist Burke, an ex-con private investigator, of a pedophile ring involved in trading child pornography via telephone...
by Andrew VachssAndrew VachssAndrew Henry Vachss is an American crime fiction author, child protection consultant, and attorney exclusively representing children and youths... - 1990 A Girl Who I Killed by Ryo Hara
- 1991 "F" Is for Fugitive by Sue GraftonSue GraftonSue Taylor Grafton is a contemporary American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the 'alphabet series' featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. The daughter of detective novelist C. W...
- 1992 A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence BlockLawrence BlockLawrence Block is an acclaimed contemporary American crime writer best known for two long-running New York–set series, about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, respectively...
- 1993 Book Case by Stephen Greenleaf
- 1994 A Cool Breeze on the Underground by Don WinslowDon WinslowDon Winslow is an American author most recognized for his crime and mystery novels. Many of his books are set in California. He has published a series of five novels that have a private investigator named Neal Carey as their main character...
- 1995 The Black IceThe Black IceThe Black Ice is the second novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.In the book, narcotics officer Calexico Moore's body is discovered Christmas night in a seedy Hollywood motel, an apparent suicide. As the L.A...
by Michael ConnellyMichael ConnellyMichael Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. His books, which have been translated into 36 languages, have garnered him many awards... - 1996 no winner
- 1997 White JazzWhite JazzWhite Jazz is a 1992 crime fiction novel by James Ellroy. It is the fourth in his L.A. Quartet, preceded by The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, and L.A. Confidential....
by James EllroyJames EllroyLee Earle "James" Ellroy is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a so-called "telegraphic" prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels The Black... - 1998 no winner
- 1999 The Big BlowdownThe Big BlowdownThe Big Blowdown is a 1996 crime novel written by George Pelecanos. It is set in Washington DC and focuses on Peter Karras. It is the first of four books comprising the D.C. Quartet...
by George PelecanosGeorge PelecanosGeorge P. Pelecanos is a Greek-American author. Many of his works are in the genre of detective fiction and set primarily in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He is also a film and television producer and a television writer... - 2000-2004 no winner
- 2005 The Wrong Goodbye by Toshihiko Yahagi
- 2006 Lost LightLost LightLost Light is the ninth novel in Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series. It is the first Bosch novel to be narrated in first person; all prior Bosch novels had utilized an omniscient third-person style.-Plot summary:...
by Michael ConnellyMichael ConnellyMichael Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. His books, which have been translated into 36 languages, have garnered him many awards... - 2007 Under the Skin by James Carlos BlakeJames Carlos BlakeJames Carlos Blake is an American writer of novels, novellas, short stories, and essays. His work has received extensive critical favor and several notable awards...
- 2008 No Country for Old MenNo Country for Old MenNo Country for Old Men is a 2005 novel by U.S. author Cormac McCarthy. Set along the United States–Mexico border in 1980, the story concerns an illicit drug deal gone wrong in a remote desert location. The title comes from the poem "Sailing to Byzantium" by William Butler Yeats...
by Cormac McCarthyCormac McCarthyCormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and modernist genres. He received the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for The Road... - 2009 Winter and Night by S.J. Rozan
- 2010 The Power of the DogThe Power of the DogThe Power of the Dog is a 2005 crime/thriller novel by Don Winslow, based on the DEA's involvement with the War on Drugs. The book was published after six years of writing and research by the author....
by Don WinslowDon WinslowDon Winslow is an American author most recognized for his crime and mystery novels. Many of his books are set in California. He has published a series of five novels that have a private investigator named Neal Carey as their main character...