Editing Mickey Spillane

{{Short description|American crime novelist (1918–2006)}}
{{For|the gangster|Mickey Spillane (mobster)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2024}}

{{Infobox writer
| name        = Mickey Spillane
| image       = Mickey Spillane Columbo 1974.JPG
| caption     = Spillane in the "[[Columbo (season 3)|Publish or Perish]]" episode of ''[[Columbo]]'' in 1974
| birth_name  = Frank Morrison Spillane
| birth_date  = {{birth date|mf=yes|1918|3|9}}
| birth_place = [[Brooklyn]], New York City, U.S.
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|2006|7|17|1918|3|9}}
| death_place = [[Murrells Inlet, South Carolina]], U.S.
| awards      = [[Inkpot Award]] (1994)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.comic-con.org/awards/inkpot |title= Inkpot Award |website=Comic-Con International: San Diego |access-date=September 16, 2020 |language=en |date=December 6, 2012}}</ref>
| spouse      = Mary Ann Pearce (1945-1963), Sherri Malinou (1965-1983), Jane Rogers Johnson (1983)
| occupation  = {{Hlist|Novelist|actor}}
| period      = 1947–2006
| genre       = [[Hardboiled]] [[crime fiction]], [[detective fiction]]
}}
'''Frank Morrison Spillane''' ({{IPAc-en|s|p|ɪ|ˈ|l|eɪ|n}}; March 9, 1918{{spaced ndash}}July 17, 2006), better known as '''Mickey Spillane''', was an American crime novelist, called the "king of pulp fiction".<ref>Collins, Max Allan and James L. Traylor.(2023) ''Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction.'' New York: Mysterious Press.</ref> His stories often feature his signature detective character, [[Mike Hammer (character)|Mike Hammer]]. More than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally. Spillane was also an occasional actor, once even playing Hammer himself in the 1965 film ''[[The Girl Hunters (film)|The Girl Hunters]]''.<ref name="TSM-102006">{{cite magazine |title=Interview: Mickey Spillane |last=Gulley |first=Andrew |date=January 2006 |magazine=[[The Strand Magazine]]}}</ref><ref name="wld">{{cite book |first=William L. |last=DeAndrea |title=Encyclopedia Mysteriosa: A Comprehensive Guide to the Art of Detection in Print, Film, Radio, and Television |location=New York |publisher=Prentice Hall General Reference |date=1994 |isbn=0671850253 |pages=336–7}}</ref>

==Early life==
Frank Morrison Spillane was born March 9, 1918, in [[Brooklyn, New York]], and primarily raised in [[Elizabeth, New Jersey]]. Spillane was the only child of his Irish bartender father, John Joseph Spillane, and his Scottish mother, Catherine Anne. During his late adolescence, his family returned to Brooklyn, where he graduated from [[Erasmus Hall High School]] in 1936.<ref>Boyer, David. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04EED8143AF932A25750C0A9679C8B63 "Neighborhood Report: Flatbush: "Grads Hail Erasmus as It Enters a Fourth Century", ''The New York Times'', March 11, 2001.] Accessed December 1, 2007.</ref> He started writing while in high school, briefly attended [[Fort Hays State College]] in Kansas and worked a variety of jobs, including summers as a lifeguard at [[Breezy Point, Queens]], and a period as a trampoline artist for the [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus]].<ref name="Obit1">{{cite news |last1=Sutherland |first1=John |title=Mickey Spillane |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jul/19/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries |access-date=17 December 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=19 July 2006}}</ref>
[[File:Lieutenant Frank Spillane, USAAF Instructor Pilot.jpg|thumb|Photo of Spillane from Greenwood Army Air Field yearbook for 1943]]
During [[World War II]], Spillane enlisted in the [[United States Army Air Forces|Army Air Corps]], becoming a fighter pilot and a flight instructor.<ref>Rippetoe, Rita Elizabeth ''Booze and the Private Eye: Alcohol in the Hard Boiled Novel''. McFarland, 2004.</ref>
He was first stationed at the air base in [[Greenwood, Mississippi]], where he met and married first wife Mary Ann Pearce in 1945.<ref name="J.2012">{{cite book|author=Debbie J.|title=Biography of Mickey Spillane|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ULV-BwAAQBAJ&pg=PT8|date=14 March 2012|publisher=Hyperink|isbn=978-1-61464-730-0|pages=8–}}</ref> He also met two younger writers, [[Earle Basinsky]] and [[Charlie Wells (writer)|Charlie Wells]], who would become his protégés; each published two hardboiled-noir novels in the Spillane style in the early 1950s.<ref name="CollinsTraylor2012">{{cite book|author1=Max Allan Collins|author2=James L. Traylor|title=Mickey Spillane on Screen: A Complete Study of the Television and Film Adaptations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sc1HDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|date=30 April 2012|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-6578-1|pages=9–}}</ref><ref name ="OleMissMystery">{{cite web | title = Earle Basinsky & Charlie Wells | url = http://hermes.lib.olemiss.edu/mystery/exhibit.asp?display=10&section=2 | website = Murder with Southern Hospitality: An Exhibition of Mississippi Mysteries | access-date = 9 February 2020 | archive-date = 9 June 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100609200241/http://hermes.lib.olemiss.edu/mystery/exhibit.asp?display=10 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

==Career==
===Comic books===
Spillane claims that he started being published as an author of [[Slick (magazine format)|slicks]] where he was credited under [[Pen name#Collective names|house names]], then went "lower" to the [[Pulp magazine|pulps]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.crimetime.co.uk/interviewing-mickey-spillane/|title=Interviewing Mickey Spillane &#124; Crime Time}}</ref> then went lower still as a writer for comic books.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Classic Era of Crime Fiction|last=Haining|first=Peter|publisher=Chicago Review Press|year=2002|isbn=1-55652-465-X|location=Chicago, Illinois|pages=124}}</ref> While working as a salesman in [[Gimbels]] department store basement in 1940, he met tie salesman [[Joe Gill]], who later found a lifetime career in scripting for [[Charlton Comics]]. Gill told Spillane to meet his brother, Ray Gill, who wrote for [[Funnies Inc.]], an outfit that packaged comic books for different publishers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cronin |first=Brian |date=2023-04-24 |title=Was Mickey Spillane's Iconic Detective, Mike Hammer, Nearly a Comic Book First? |url=https://www.cbr.com/mickey-spillane-mike-hammer-mike-danger-comic-book/ |access-date=2024-08-07 |website=CBR |language=en}}</ref>

Spillane soon began writing an eight-page story every day. He concocted adventures for major 1940s comic book characters, including [[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]], [[Superman]], [[Batman]], and [[Captain America]]. In the early 1940s, working for Funnies, Inc., he wrote two-page text stories which were syndicated to various comic book publishers, including [[Timely Comics]]. At one point, Spillane estimated he wrote fifty of these "short-short stories," which were intended to fulfill a postal regulation requiring comic books to have at least two pages of text to qualify for a second-class mailing permit.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

While most comic books writers toiled anonymously, Spillane's byline appeared on most of his prose "filler" stories. 26 stories were collected in ''Primal Spillane: Early Stories 1941–1942'' (Gryphon Books, 2003). A new, expanded edition of ''Primal Spillane'' was released by Bold Venture Press in 2018, the new volume contained an additional fifteen stories, including the previously unpublished "A Turn of the Tide".{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

===Novels===
[[File:Mike Lancer in Green Hornet Comics 10.jpg|thumb|Mike Lancer in ''Green Hornet Comics'' #10 (December 1942); art by [[Harry Sahle]]]]
Spillane joined the United States Army Air Corps on December 8, 1941, the day after the [[Pearl Harbor|attack on Pearl Harbor]]. In the mid-1940s he was stationed as a flight instructor in [[Greenwood, Mississippi]], where he met and married Mary Ann Pearce in 1945. The couple wanted to buy a country house in the town of [[Newburgh (town), New York|Newburgh, New York]], 60 miles north of New York City, so Spillane decided to boost his bank account by writing a novel. He wrote ''[[I, the Jury]]'' in just 9 days.<ref name="Obit1" /> At the suggestion of Ray Gill, he sent it to [[E. P. Dutton]].{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

With the combined total of the 1947 hardcover and the Signet paperback (December 1948), ''I, the Jury'' sold 6-1/2 million copies in the United States alone. ''I, the Jury'' introduced Spillane's most famous character, hardboiled detective [[Mike Hammer (character)|Mike Hammer]]. Although tame by some standards, his novels featured more sex than competing titles, and the violence was more overt than the usual detective story. Covers tended to feature scantily dressed women or women who appeared as if they were about to undress. In the beginning, Mike Hammer's chief nemeses consisted of gangsters, but by the early '50s, this broadened to communists and deviants.<ref name="wld" />

In December 1942 an early version of Spillane's Mike Hammer character, called Mike Lancer, appeared in [[Harvey Comics]]' ''[[Green Hornet]] Comics'' #10.<ref name="Who">{{cite news |last1=Bails |first1=Jerry |last2=Ware |first2=Hames |title=Sahle, Harry |url=http://www.bailsprojects.com/(S(4pszsy20oexeeq55fizzo4ym))/bio.aspx?Name=Sahle%2c+Harry |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727190412/http://www.bailsprojects.com/(S(4pszsy20oexeeq55fizzo4ym))/bio.aspx?Name=Sahle,+Harry |archive-date=July 27, 2011 |access-date=September 5, 2008 |publisher=(entry), [[Jerry Bails#...Of American Comic Books|Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999]] |authorlink=Jerry Bails}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cronin |first=Brian |date=2023-04-24 |title=Was Mickey Spillane's Iconic Detective, Mike Hammer, Nearly a Comic Book First? |url=https://www.cbr.com/mickey-spillane-mike-hammer-mike-danger-comic-book/ |access-date=2024-08-07 |website=CBR |language=en}}</ref> In 1946, Spillane submitted in a script for a detective-themed comic book.<ref name="toonopedia">[http://www.toonopedia.com/mdanger.htm Mike Danger] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://archive.today/20240527184827/https://www.webcitation.org/6friLo7Jb?url=http://www.toonopedia.com/mdanger.htm Archived] from the original on March 8, 2016.</ref> "Mike Hammer originally started out to be a comic book. I was gonna have a Mike Danger comic book," Spillane said in a 1984 interview.<ref name=cbs>{{cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mickey-spillanes-state-of-mind/|title=Mickey Spillane's State Of Mind|website=[[CBS News]]|date=23 July 2006}}</ref> Two Mike Danger comic-book stories were published in 1954 without Spillane's knowledge. These were published with other material in "Byline: Mickey Spillane," edited by Max Allan Collins and Lynn F. Myers, Jr. (Crippen & Landru publishers, 2004).

The Mike Hammer series proved hugely successful during the 1950s and 1960s, but the books were excoriated by the literary establishment. [[Malcolm Cowley]] of ''[[The New Republic]]'' called Spillane "a dangerous [[paranoia|paranoid]], [[wikt:sadism|sadist]], and [[wikt:masochism|masochist]]" and even his own editors sometimes found his novels distasteful. Spillane for his part was unmoved by critics, saying "You can sell a lot more peanuts than caviar" and "The literary world is made of second rate writers writing about other second rate writers." Attractively low prices (25 cents for a paperback copy, later raised to 50 cents) helped sales, and the 1956 informative guide ''Sixty Years of Best Sellers'' found that the six novels Spillane had written up to that point were among the top ten best selling American fiction titles of all time.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

The Signet paperbacks displayed dramatic front cover illustrations. Lou Kimmel created the cover paintings for ''My Gun Is Quick'', ''Vengeance Is Mine'', ''One Lonely Night'', and ''The Long Wait''. The cover art for ''Kiss Me, Deadly'' was by James Meese.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

===Acting===
[[File:Mickey spillane 1973.JPG|left|thumb|Spillane in the 1974 ''Columbo'' episode "Publish or Perish".]]
Spillane portrayed himself as a detective in ''Ring of Fear'' (1954), and rewrote the film without credit for John Wayne's and [[Robert Fellows]]'s Wayne-Fellows Productions. The film was directed by screenwriter [[James Edward Grant]]. Several Hammer novels were made into movies, including ''[[Kiss Me Deadly]]'' (1955). In ''[[The Girl Hunters (film)|The Girl Hunters]]'' (1963) filmed in England, Spillane himself appeared as Hammer, one of the few occasions in film history in which an author of a popular literary hero has portrayed his own character. Spillane was scheduled to film ''[[The Snake (Spillane novel)|The Snake]]'' as a follow-up, but the film was never made.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874764,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050111222316/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874764,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 11, 2005|title=Movies: I, the Actor|date=7 June 1963|magazine=Time}}</ref>

On October 25, 1956, Spillane appeared on ''[[The Ford Show|The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford]]'', with interest on his Mike Hammer novels.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ernieford.com/FordShow1-1.htm|title=The Ford Show, Season One|publisher=ernieford.com|access-date=December 28, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101128164912/http://ernieford.com/FordShow1-1.htm|archive-date=November 28, 2010}}</ref> In January 1974, he appeared with [[Jack Cassidy]] in the television series ''[[List of Columbo episodes#Season 3|Columbo]]'' starring [[Peter Falk]] in the episode "[[List of Columbo episodes#Season 3|Publish or Perish]]". He portrayed a writer who is murdered.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071349/|title="Columbo" Publish or Perish (TV Episode 1974)|author=J. Spurlin|date=18 January 1974|work=IMDb}}</ref> In 1995 and 1997, he appeared in the low budget films [[Mommy (1995 film)|Mommy]] and its sequel, [[Mommy 2: Mommy's Day]].

In 1969, Spillane formed a production company with Robert Fellows who had produced ''The Girl Hunters'' to produce many of his books, but Fellows died soon after and only ''The Delta Factor'' was produced.<ref>p.77 Baker, Robert Allen &  Nietzel, Michael T.  ''Private Eyes: One Hundred and One Knights : A Survey of American Detective Fiction, 1922-1984 Popular Press, 1985</ref>

During the 1980s, he appeared in [[Miller Lite]] beer commercials.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/18/news | work=The Guardian | title=Mickey Spillane dies | date=July 18, 2006}}</ref> In the 1990s, Spillane licensed one of his characters to [[Tekno Comix]] for use in a science-fiction adventure series, ''Mike Danger''. In his introduction to the series, Spillane said he had conceived of the character decades earlier but never used him.<ref name=cbs/>

==Reception==
Early reaction to Spillane's work was generally hostile. [[Malcolm Cowley]] dismissed the Mike Hammer character as "a homicidal paranoiac."<ref name="rlg">Robert L. Gale, ''A Mickey Spillane companion'' Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0313058482}} (ix)</ref> [[John G. Cawelti]] called Spillane's writing "atrocious," and [[Julian Symons]] called Spillane's work "nauseating."<ref name="rlg"/> By contrast, [[Ayn Rand]] publicly praised Spillane's work at a time when critics were almost uniformly hostile.  She considered him an underrated if uneven stylist and found congenial the [[False dilemma#Black and white thinking|black-and-white]] morality of the Hammer stories. However, Rand condemned the political views expressed by Spillane in his Tiger Mann novel ''Day of the Guns'', describing the book's cynical protagonist and his "semi-governmental gang" as being "shocking and rationally indefensible", as Rand opposed the use of force unlimited by any framework of rights.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://newideal.aynrand.org/ayn-rand-speaks-up-for-mickey-spillane-part-2/ |title=Ayn Rand Speaks Up for Mickey Spillane |last=Milgram |first=Shoshana  |date=December 21, 2022 |publisher=[[Ayn Rand Institute]] |access-date=March 10, 2024}}</ref>

Spillane's work was later praised by [[Max Allan Collins]], [[William L. DeAndrea]],<ref name="wld" /> and Robert L. Gale.<ref name="rlg" /> DeAndrea argued that although Spillane's characters were stereotypes, Spillane had a "flair for fast-action writing," that his work broke new ground for American crime fiction, and that Spillane's prose "is lean and spare and authentically tough, something that writers like [[Raymond Chandler]] and [[Ross Macdonald]] never achieved."<ref name="wld"/>

German painter [[Markus Lüpertz]] claimed that Spillane's writing influenced his own work, saying that Spillane ranks as one of the major poets of the 20th century. American comic book writer [[Frank Miller]] has mentioned Spillane as an influence for his own [[hardboiled]] style. [[Avant-garde music|Avant-Garde]] musician [[John Zorn]] composed a piece influenced by Spillane's writing titled ''[[Spillane (album)|Spillane]]''.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

==Awards and accolades==
In 1983, Spillane received the [[Shamus Award#THE EYE – Lifetime Achievement Award|lifetime achievement award]] from the Private Eye Writers of America.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |entry=Mickey Spillane |page=609 |last=Yearley |first=Clifton K. |title=100 Masters of Mystery and Detective Fiction |volume=2 |editor-last=Kelleghan |editor-first=Fiona |publisher=Salem Press |location=Pasadena, CA |date=2001 |isbn=0-89356-958-5}}</ref> He also received an [[Edgar Award|Edgar Allan Poe Grand Master Award]] in 1995.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Baumgold |first=Julie |magazine=Esquire |title=A Wild Man Proper |date=August 1995 |page=130|department = Mr. Peepers, Esq. |volume=124 |issue = 2 }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |entry=Spillane, Mickey |page=1702 |last=Stolberg |first=Victor B. |title=The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: A-De |encyclopedia=The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America |date=10 August 2012 |volume=4 |editor-last=Miller |editor-first=Wilbur R. |isbn=978-1-4129-8876-6 |publisher=Sage |location=Los Angeles}}</ref>

==In popular culture==

[[Walt Kelly]] wrote two parodies of Hammer's work which satirized his spare, disjointed style, overblown first-person narration, and teetering, barely controlled paranoia: "The Bloody Drip" and "The Bloody Drip Writhes Again", both starring Albert the Alligator as the detective Meat Hamburg. They were published in the following "[[Pogo (comic strip)|Pogo]]" collections:
* "The Bloody Drip" by Mucky Spleen (1953, Uncle Pogo's So-So Stories)
* "Gore Blimey: The Bloody Drip Writhes Again" (1955, The Pogo Peek-a-Book)

Spillane was also parodied several times in ''[[Mad Magazine]]''. The April 1959 issue carried a piece called "If Mickey Spillane Wrote Nancy" (the comic strip ''[[Nancy (comic strip)|Nancy]]'', by [[Ernie Bushmiller]]).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Asher|first=Levi|date=2006-07-18|title=If Mickey Spillane Wrote Nancy|url=https://litkicks.com/SpillaneNancy/|access-date=2021-07-16|website=Literary Kicks|language=en-US}}</ref>

<!--Do not include minor pop culture references, including namedropping; see [[WP:IPC]]-->
The television series ''[[M*A*S*H (TV series)|MASH]]'' had an episode devoted to Mickey Spillane and his books.

In the 1955 film ''[[Marty (film)|Marty]]'', on a discussion about one of Mickey Spillane's book, Leo says, "That Mickey Spillane, he sure can write."

In the film ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'', Gny. Sgt. Hartman, after providing Pvt. Joker with his Marine Corps assignment as a military journalist, asks him, "Do you think you're Mickey Spillane? Do you think you are some kind of f**king writer?”

In 1987, New York avant-garde jazz musician [[John Zorn]] published ''[[Spillane (album)|Spillane]]'', an album composed of three "file-card pieces", as well as a work for voice, string quartet and turntables. Zorn wrote ''Spillane'' on a series of index cards, each containing an outline or instruction for the musicians that was intended to evoke scenes from one of Spillane's novels.

==Personal life==
In 1945, Mickey met and married Mary Ann Pearce. They had four children, Caroline, Kathy, Michael, and Ward. Their marriage ended in 1962.

In November 1965, he married his second wife, [[nightclub singer]] Sherri Malinou. The marriage ended in divorce (and a lawsuit) in 1983.

Spillane shared his waterfront house in [[Murrells Inlet]] with his third wife, Jane Rogers Johnson, and her two daughters, Jennifer and Margaret Johnson. They married in October 1983.

In the 1960s, Spillane became a friend of the novelist [[Ayn Rand]]. Despite their apparent differences, Rand admired Spillane's literary style, and Spillane became, as he described it, a "fan" of Rand's work.<ref>McConnell, Scott, ed., "Mickey Spillane", ''100 Voices: an Oral History of Ayn Rand'', 2010, New American Library, pp. 232-239.</ref>  Later in his life, Spillane became an active [[Jehovah's Witness]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/17/AR2006071700990.html |title=Mickey Spillane; Tough-Guy Writer Of Mike Hammer Detective Mysteries |author=Adam Bernstein |date=July 18, 2006 |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=December 19, 2012}}</ref>

In 1989, [[Hurricane Hugo]] ravaged his Murrells Inlet house to such a degree it had to be almost entirely reconstructed. A television interview showed Spillane standing in the ruins of his house.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

==Death and legacy==
Spillane died on July 17, 2006, at his home in Murrells Inlet, of [[pancreatic cancer]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/arts/18spillane.html|title=Mickey Spillane, 88, Critic-Proof Writer of Pulpy Mike Hammer Novels, Dies|date=18 July 2006|work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1823306,00.html|title=Mickey Spillane|author=John Sutherland|work=The Guardian|date=18 July 2006}}</ref><ref name="l458">{{Cite web |date=2006-07-17 |title=Mystery novelist Spillane dies |url=https://www.washingtontimes.com:443/news/2006/jul/17/20060717-105745-4982r/ |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=[[The Washington Times]]}}</ref> After his death, his friend and literary executor, [[Max Allan Collins]], began editing and completing Spillane's unpublished typescripts, beginning with a non-series novel, ''Dead Street'' (2007).

In July 2011, the community of Murrells Inlet named [[U.S. Route 17 in South Carolina|U.S. 17 Business]] the "Mickey Spillane Waterfront 17 Highway". The proposal first passed the [[Georgetown County, South Carolina|Georgetown County]] Council in 2006 while Spillane was still alive, but the [[South Carolina General Assembly]] rejected the plan.<ref name=Vasselli>{{cite news|url=http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/07/11/2271191/new-name-coming-soon-for-local.html|title=New name coming soon for road in Murrells Inlet|last=Vasselli|first=Gina|work=[[The Sun News]]|date=2011-07-11|access-date=2011-07-11|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230080623/http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/07/11/2271191/new-name-coming-soon-for-local.html|archive-date=2011-12-30}}</ref>

==Novels==
===Mike Hammer===
* 1947 ''[[I, the Jury]]''
* 1950 ''[[My Gun Is Quick]]''
* 1950 ''[[Vengeance Is Mine (novel)|Vengeance Is Mine]]''
* 1951 ''[[One Lonely Night]]''
* 1951 ''[[The Big Kill]]''
* 1952 ''[[Kiss Me, Deadly]]''
* 1962 ''[[The Girl Hunters]]''
* 1964 ''[[The Snake (Spillane novel)|The Snake]]''
* 1966 ''[[The Twisted Thing]]''
* 1967 ''[[The Body Lovers]]''
* 1970 ''[[Survival... Zero!]]''
* 1989 ''[[The Killing Man]]''
* 1996 ''[[Black Alley]]''

===Tiger Mann===
* 1964 ''Day of the Guns''
* 1965 ''Bloody Sunrise''
* 1965 ''The Death Dealers''
* 1966 ''The By-Pass Control''

===Morgan the Raider===
* 1967 ''[[The Delta Factor (film)|The Delta Factor]]''
* 2011 ''The Consummata'' – completed by [[Max Allan Collins]]

===Other novels===
* 1951 ''[[The Long Wait]]''
* 1959 ''Me, Hood'' A complete novelette printed in the July 1959 ''Cavalier'' magazine
* 1961 ''The Deep''
* 1964 ''Return of the Hood''
* 1964 ''The Flier''
* 1965 ''Killer Mine''
* 1965  ''Man Alone''
* 1972 ''The Erection Set'' – a Dogeron Kelly novel; in the [[Jacqueline Susann]] mould
* 1973 ''The Last Cop Out''
* 1979 ''The Day The Sea Rolled Back'' - young adult
* 1982 ''The Ship That Never Was'' - young adult
* 1984 ''Tomorrow I Die'' – collection of short stories
* 2001 ''Together We Kill: The Uncollected Stories of Mickey Spillane'' – collection of short stories
* 2003 ''Something's Down There'' – featuring semi-retired spy Mako Hooker
* 2007 ''Dead Street'' – completed by Max Allan Collins and featuring retired [[NYPD]] Captain Jack Stang, the name of a policeman friend of Spillane's<ref name="dead street">Spillane, Mickey. ''Dead Street''. Hard Case Crime/Dorchester Publishing, 2007, p. 214.</ref>
* 2015 ''The Legend of Caleb York'' – novelisation by Max Allan Collins (Based on an un-produced movie script by Mickey Spillane)

===List of short stories===
* 1989 ''The Killing Man'' – Mike Hammer short story later turned into a full-length Mike Hammer novel published in ''Playboy'' magazine December 1989, later republished in the book ''Byline: Mickey Spillane'' in 2004 ([[Crippen & Landru]])
* 1996 ''Black Alley'' – Mike Hammer short story later turned into a full-length Mike Hammer novel published in ''Playboy'' magazine December 1996, later republished in the book ''Byline: Mickey Spillane'' in 2004 (Crippen & Landru)
* 1998 ''The Night I Died'' – Mike Hammer short story published in the anthology ''Private Eyes'' – although story was written in 1953, was not published until 1998
* 2003 ''Primal Spillane: Early Stories 1941-1942'' - With an introduction by Collins and Lynn F. Myers Jr. – published by Gryphon Books.
* 2004 ''The Duke Alexander'' – Mike Hammer short story published in the book ''Byline: Mickey Spillane'' first published in 2004 (Crippen & Landru), although it was originally written circa 1956
* 2008 ''The Big Switch'' – Mike Hammer short story; completed by [[Max Allan Collins]] – published in ''The Strand Magazine'', reprinted in paperback in ''The Mammoth Book of the World's Best Crime Stories'', 2009
* 2009 ''I'll Die Tomorrow'' – (illustrated, limited edition of the short story, posthumous with Collins)
* 2010 ''A Long Time Dead'' – Mike Hammer short story; completed by Collins – published in ''The Strand Magazine''
* 2010 ''Grave Matter'' – Mike Hammer short story; completed by Collins – published in ''Crimes By Moonlight'', ed. Charlaine Harris
* 2012 ''Skin'' – Mike Hammer e-book short story; completed by Collins
* 2013 ''So Long, Chief'' – Mike Hammer short story; completed by Collins – published in ''The Strand Magazine'', Issue XXXIX, Feb. - May 2013
* 2014 ''It's In The Book'' – Mike Hammer e-book short story; completed by Collins
* 2015 ''Fallout'' – Mike Hammer short story; completed by Collins – published in ''The Strand Magazine''
* 2016 ''A Dangerous Cat'' – Mike Hammer short story; completed by Collins – published in ''The Strand Magazine'', Issue XLVIII, Feb. - May 2016
* 2016 ''A Long Time Dead: A Mike Hammer Casebook'' – a collection of short stories by Mickey Spillane and Collins – published by Mysteriouspress.com/Open Road (collection reprints the stories ''The Big Switch'', ''A Long Time Dead'', ''Grave Matter'', ''So Long, Chief'', ''Fallout'', ''A Dangerous Cat'', ''Skin'' (first time in print format), and ''It's In The Book'' (first time in print format))
* 2018 ''A Turn of the Tide'' — although written circa 1950, it was not published until 2018 in the expanded and revised edition of [https://www.amazon.com/Primal-Spillane-Early-Stories-1941-1942/dp/1721741771/ref=sr_1_3?crid=16SV921Y4TBCN&keywords=primal+spillane&qid=1645391031&sprefix=primal+spillane%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-3 ''Primal Spillane''] by [https://www.boldventurepress.com/ Bold Venture Press].
* 2018 ''Tonight My Love'' – Mike Hammer short story; developed by Collins – published in ''The Strand Magazine'', Issue LVI, Oct. 2018 - Jan. 2019 – story developed from a Mickey Spillane radio-style playlet that was part of a Mike Hammer jazz LP (Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer Story) produced in 1954 by Mickey Spillane. This is the story of how Mike Hammer met Velda.

==See also==
* [[History of crime fiction]]
* [[History of crime fiction#Hardboiled American crime fiction writing|Hard boiled American crime fiction writing]]
* [[List of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1958 TV series) episodes|List of ''Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer'' (1958 TV series) episodes]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last1=Collins|first1=Max Allan|last2=Traylor|first2=James L.|title=Mickey Spillane on screen : a complete study of the television and film adaptations|date=2012|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=9780786465781}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{commons category}}
* {{IMDb name|0818765}}
* [http://www.therealmikehammer.com Biography of Jack Stang - The Real Mike Hammer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200721223324/http://www.therealmikehammer.com/ |date=July 21, 2020 }}
* [http://twomorrows.com/alterego/articles/11spillane.html "'Comics Were Great!' A Colorful Conversation with Mickey Spillane"], ''[[Alter Ego (magazine)|Alter Ego]]'' vol. 3, #11, November 2001. Accessed September 5, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101201092816/http://twomorrows.com/alterego/articles/11spillane.html WebCitation archive].
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20051119141832/http://www.adherents.com/people/ps/Mickey_Spillane.html "The Religious Affiliation of Writer of Hard-boiled Detective Novels Mickey Spillane"]}}, ''Crime Time'' August 6, 2001, via Famous Jehovah's Witnesses. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110103085357/http://www.adherents.com/people/ps/Mickey_Spillane.html WebCitation archive]}}.
* {{Books and Writers |id=spillane |name=Mickey Spillane |cite=yes}}
* Smith, Kevin Burton. [http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/spillane.html "Authors and Creators: Mickey Spillane (Frank Morrison Spillane) (1918-2006)"], ''Thrilling Detective'', n.d. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101201024153/http://thrillingdetective.com/trivia/spillane.html WebCitation archive].
* Holland, Steve. [http://www.mysteryfile.com/Spillane/Verdict.html "Mickey Spillane: Hardboiled's Most Extreme Stylist or Cynical Exploiter of Machismo?"], ''Crime Time'' 2.6, December 1999, via MysteryFile.com
* Meroney, John. [https://archive.today/20121216134051/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A43815-2001Aug21&notFound=true "Man of Mysteries: It'd Been Years Since Spillane Pulled a Job. Could We Find Him? Yeah. It Was Easy"], ''[[The Washington Post]]'', August 22, 2001, p.&nbsp;C01. [https://web.archive.org/web/20050719233013/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article WebCitation archive].

{{Mike Hammer}}
{{Inkpot Award 1990s}}

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