Few people building a private library of hard-boiled detective fiction probably are aware that the pulp magazine that most heavily influenced this genre's major tropes, The Black Mask, was co-founded by two of 20th century America's most influential critics and editors, H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan.
Think of just about any defining characteristic of hard-boiled detective fiction and it's very likely that that characteristic first appeared in a story in The Black Mask:
- hero has tough attitude: cool, cocky, flippant
- hero is usually private investigator working alone
- violence is second nature to hero
- hero is ambivalent towards police
- hero is usually strapped for cash
- a femme fatale usually is involved in the plot
- the landscape is almost always urban and gritty
- hero drinks heavily but usually remains sober enough to fight bad guys
The Black Mask probably reached the peak of its influence during the decade 1926-1936, when its short stories began to increasingly reflect the harsh realities of life in urban America during that period:
Two writers during this period became especially associated with the hard-boiled detective fiction appearing in The Black Mask: Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler....
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