Hammett). In it, Gores addresses one of the subjects that was most on my mind yesterday: the Maltese Falcon prequel he is supposed to be preparing for print.As I already knew, that novel will be called Spade & Archer. What I didn’t know, but that Gores relates during Coggins’ interview, is that his story will cover a period of time stretching between 1921 and 1928 (when the mysterious affair of the Maltese Falcon erupted); that it will relate how San Francisco private eye Sam Spade met his future partner, Miles Archer, and why he became so hardened; and that it will explain how, during World War I, Spade originally met and lost Iva, the woman who would subsequently marry Archer--all stuff that Dashiell Hammett left out of his 1930 novel. Gores suggests as well that Spade & Archer will contain lots of Chinese immigration history, plus a bit about San Francisco’s Greek community.
According to Joe Gores, Spade & Archer will be released by Alfred A. Knopf (which was Hammett’s publisher) sometime in mid-2008. That is excellent news, indeed.
To listen to the third part of Coggins’ talk with Gores, click here. Parts I and II are here and here, respectively.
FOLLOW-UP: Did you know that several U.S. communities have adopted The Maltese Falcon as their National Endowment for the Arts-sponsored “Big Read” project? Elizabeth Foxwell directs us to the schedule of associate events.
READ MORE: “891 Post Street,” by Mark Coggins.
3 comments:
Gores is a great writer, no argument there, but this stinks of bad idea, kinda like Robert Parker writing a sequel to The Big Sleep.
I'm with Cameron, except for one caveat - Parker's POODLE SPRINGS, based on an unfinished Chandler manuscript, was actually pretty good.
If anybody can pull this off Gores can, but I still have my doubts.
Gores' Hammett-style book, Interface, was brilliant. I just can't see this working.
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