Black Mask

10.15 Black Mask.jpg

Title

Black Mask

Coverage

New York

Publisher

Pro-Distributors Publishing Company

Date

September 1929

Subject

Volume 12, number 1

Description

Black Mask was begun by H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan in 1920 to raise money to support publication of their literary magazine, Smart Set. After it was sold for a $12,000 profit after six months, Black Mask went on to pioneer hard-boiled detective fiction with stories by Carroll John Daly, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler. This issue introduced Sam Spade in Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon.