Editing The Maltese Falcon (novel) (section)

==Background==
[[File:Black Mask Cover (September 1929) Maltese Falcon.jpg|thumb|September 1929 cover of ''[[Black Mask (magazine)|Black Mask]]'', featuring part 1 of serialization of ''The Maltese Falcon''. Illustration by Henry C. Murphy, Jr.|left|270x270px]]
Although Hammett himself worked for a time as a private detective for the [[Pinkerton National Detective Agency|Pinkerton Detective Agency]] in San Francisco (and used his given name, Samuel, for the story's protagonist), Hammett asserted that "Spade has no original. He is a dream man in the sense that he is what most of the private detectives I worked with would like to have been, and, in their cockier moments, thought they approached."<ref name="intro">[https://thrillingdetective.com/2018/08/03/dashiell-hammetts-introduction-to-the-maltese-falcon/ Introduction to ''The Maltese Falcon'' (1934 edition)]</ref>

Hammett reportedly drew upon his years as a detective in creating many of the other characters for ''The Maltese Falcon'', which reworks elements from some of his stories published in ''[[Black Mask (magazine)|Black Mask]]'' magazine in 1925, "The Whosis Kid" and "The Gutting of Couffignal".<ref name="Hammetintro">{{cite web|author=Hammett, Dashiell|title=Introduction to ''The Maltese Falcon'' (1934 edition)|date=August 3, 2018 |url=https://thrillingdetective.com/2018/08/03/dashiell-hammetts-introduction-to-the-maltese-falcon/|access-date=November 24, 2024}}</ref> 

=== Serialized Version ===
The novel was serialized in five parts in ''Black Mask'' from September 1929 to January 1930. The serialized version of the story entered the public domain on January 1, 2025.{{Efn|The 1930 edition was copyrighted in December 1929.}}  The book underwent copy edits before being published in book form a year later in 1930 by [[Alfred A. Knopf]]. The novel will enter the public domain on January 1, 2026.<ref name=":0" />