Red Harvest

Red Harvest
Cover of the first edition
AuthorDashiell Hammett
LanguageEnglish
GenreDetective
PublishedFebruary 1, 1929 (Alfred A. Knopf)[1]
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Followed byThe Dain Curse 

Red Harvest (1929) is a novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett. The story is narrated by the Continental Op, a frequent character in Hammett's fiction, much of which is drawn from his own experiences as an operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency (fictionalized as the Continental Detective Agency).[2] The plot follows the Op's investigation of several murders amid a labor dispute in a corrupt Montana mining town. Some of the novel was inspired by the Anaconda Road massacre, a 1920 labor dispute in the mining town of Butte, Montana.[3]

Time included Red Harvest in its 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005, noting that, in the Continental Op, Hammett "created the prototype for every sleuth who would ever be called 'hard-boiled.'"[4] The Nobel Prize-winning author André Gide called the book "a remarkable achievement, the last word in atrocity, cynicism, and horror."[5]

  1. ^ "Red Harvest (publishing information)". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved July 2, 2017.
  2. ^ Serafin, Steven R.; Bendixen, Alfred, eds. (2003) [1999]. The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature. New York: Continuum. p. 264. ISBN 9780826417770.
  3. ^ Panek, LeRoy Lad (2004). Reading Early Hammett: A Critical Study of the Fiction Prior to 'The Maltese Falcon'. MacFarland & Company. p. 122. ISBN 9780786419623.
  4. ^ Grossman, Lev; Lacayo, Richard (2005-10-31). "Time's Critics Pick the 100 Best Novels 1923 to the Present". Time. Archived from the original on October 21, 2005. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  5. ^ "Books: Gide Fad". Time. 1944-04-06. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved 2010-09-26.

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