The American Magazine, July 1932 / A Man Called Spade

 The American Magazine, July 1932.  Cover by John E. Sheridan

 Get the joined version with scanner tag here: The American v114n01 1932-07.Crowell(Darwination-DPP)

or you can view or download in multiple formats from my shelf from the library at the Internet Archive here. 

One of the great American slicks, The American is jam packed with awesome articles and artists from the golden age of American magazines.  The wiki sez

The American Magazine was a periodical publication founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie. It succeeded Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (1876–1904), Leslie's Monthly Magazine (1904–1905), Leslie's Magazine (1905) and the American Illustrated Magazine (1905–1906).^[1] The magazine was published through August 1956. 

Google has done their normal slapdash job (bless their hearts) and archived something like the full run of the magazine which is housed at The Hathi Trust here.

But on to our issue, which you may have noticed is a key issue as the first appearance of Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade outside of the pages Black Mask.

 Contents

 

I can't get away from the Camels.  I don't recall if Spade has a brand, but you know he's always got a smoke in his mouth.

Splash for the Silk Train by Courtney Ryley Cooper and illustrated by C. Peter Helck.  Born in KC, MO, Cooper ran away with the circus at age 16 and became a circus clown, eventually working his way up to general manager of the circus.  He wrote for numerous newspapers and as a press agent for Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. (book recommend, Joy Kasson's Buffalo Bill's Wild West).  Cooper wrote much on the plague of American crime, and J. Edgar Hoover was his number one fan.

Splash for adventurer and naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews' It's Safer in the Wilds, illustrated by Harvey Dunn.  Unconfirmed but largely suspected: Andrews is the model for the character of Indiana Jones.

But the main draw for yours truly, A Man Called Spade.  I'll go ahead and post the full story even though it is indeed easier to read in a reader or likely at the IA because, you know, Blogger images suck.  Illustrated by Joseph Clement Coll.

Sam Spade is likely best remembered as the lead in The Maltese Falcon. This story would be included in the collection A Man Called Spade and Other Stories.  Red Harvest is a personal favorite, and there is good reason he holds some the highest ground in the pantheon of American crime fiction.  I'll no doubt get into more writing on Hammett some other time (perhaps some scans from his early work at Smart Set or the good lord willing Black Mask), as he's a favorite of mine with many excellent works not to mention an interesting life story.  

Now, I've got to go plant some grass seed while the conditions are right and later get to some edit work for an upcoming post.  I leave you to tour the museum alone and will put up a few more images without comment.   Beyond the images I post, there's much more of high merit to explore in these magazines I post, so please do.  Grab the scan and use my images and your blogs to write about your own insights into these great magazines.  That's what the scans are here for, after all, and why us scanners do what we do.