Well, I agree with those who thought that the Flitcraft but
was
the central portion of TMF. There is definitely padding in
some of the OP
stories, but when _Glass Key_ came out Hammett is pretty well
at the top of
his earning power, with guaranteed hardcover sale and major
reviewer
attention. The days of hanging out on the cheap at Nathanial
West's hotel
were history, so I doubt that he still was thinking in terms
of 55 extra
words paying for a couple more drinks. I think that the use
of the full name
of Beaumont is really just another device to convey the icy
remoteness of
the guy, who is so tough that he makes Sam Spade sound like
Leo Buscaglia. I
guess one man's padding is another's belles lettres, as in
the celebrated
passage in _Dain Curse_ where the character adds couple of
hundred words by
counting out the contents of his wallet.....it may have been
padding in
order to up the word count, but I think that Shaw got his
money's worth.
James
James Michael Rogers
jetan@ionet.net
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.