The Hammett newspaper reprint action keeps churning!
Terry Zobeck popped me a note taking the search for newsprint Op yarns Down Under. Even my informants have informants.
Here’s Terry:
Our correspondent from Australia, Warren “Woz” Sproule, from a few years ago sent me a link to an Australian paper, The New Wireless Weekly for September 12, 1942, from Sydney.
It reprints “The Creeping Siamese” — with the confusing cover teaser “New Complete ‘Thin Man’ Story by Dashiell Hammett Inside”.
Light editing removes any reference that dates the story to the 1920s, with a few other random touches, including a couple of unfortunate edits to Hammett’s dialogue.
However, it does not use the Dannay version. Most likely because it slipped into print before Dannay (editing as Ellery Queen) began his ambitious reprint program.
I’d like to know how much Hammett was making off these syndicated reprints.
And Woz offers this tip:
When it flashes up, download page 1, then 6 and 7.
If this link works, let me know and I’ll send you another (6-page) Antipodean installment — “First Aide” (i.e., “The Assistant Murderer”). Good Luck.
