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[[Image:BlackMaskFalcon2.jpg|right|275px|thumb|Cover of seminal hardboiled magazine ''[[Black Mask (magazine)|Black Mask]]'', September 1929, featuring part 1 of its serialization of ''The Maltese Falcon'', by Dashiell Hammett. Illustration of private eye Sam Spade by Henry C. Murphy, Jr.]]
{{Infobox magazine
'''Hardboiled crime fiction''' is a literary style pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined by Raymond Chandler beginning in the late 1930s. Hardboiled fiction, most commonly associated with detective stories, is distinguished by an unsentimental portrayal of crime, violence, and sex. From its earliest days, hardboiled fiction was published in and closely associated with so-called pulp magazines, most famously Black Mask; later, many hardboiled novels were published by houses specializing in paperback originals, also colloquially known as "pulps." Consequently, "pulp fiction" is often used as a synonym for hardboiled crime fiction. In the United States, the original hardboiled style has been emulated by innumerable writers, notably including Chester Himes, Mickey Spillane, Ross Macdonald, John D. MacDonald, Robert B. Parker, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, and Walter Mosley.
| title              = Black Mask
| image        = BlackMaskFalcon2.jpg|
| image_size        =
|       caption      = Cover of September 1929 issue, featuring part 1 of Black Mask's serialization of The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. Illustration of private eye Sam Spade by Henry C. Murphy, Jr.
| publisher          = Popular Publications
| category          = [[Hardboiled]]
| total_circulation  =
| circulation_year  =
| frequency          =  
| language          = English
| editor            = H. L. Mencken,<br>George Jean Nathan,<br>later Joseph Shaw
| editor_title      =
| headquarters      =
| founded            = 1920
| firstdate          = &nbsp;
| country            = {{USA}}
| website            = &nbsp;
| issn              =
}}
'''''Black Mask''''' was a [[pulp magazine]] launched in 1920 by journalist H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan as one of a number of money-making publishing ventures to support the prestigious literary magazine ''The Smart Set'', which Mencken edited, and which operated at a loss. Under their editorial hand, ''Black Mask'' was not exclusively a publisher of crime fiction, offering, according to the magazine, "the best stories available of adventure, the best mystery and detective stories, the best romances, the best love stories, and the best stories of the occult."


The name comes from a colloquial phrase of an understatement. For an egg, to be hardboiled is to be comparatively tough. The hardboiled detective-originated by Daly's Terry Mack and Race Williams and epitomized by Hammett's Sam Spade and Chandler's Philip Marlowe-not only solves mysteries, like his "softer" counterparts, he (and often these days, she) confronts danger and engages in violence on a regular basis. The hardboiled detective also has a characteristically tough attitude-in fact, Spade and Marlowe are two of the primary fictional models for the attitude that has come to be known as "attitude": cool, cocky, flippant. For extensive detail on the identifying marks of the style, see the history of American hardboiled fiction.
After eight issues, Mencken and Nathan considered their initial $500 investment to have been sufficiently profitable, and they sold the magazine to its publishers, Eltinge Warner and Eugene Crow for $12,500. Joseph Shaw took over the editorship.
{{Pulps}}
 
Shaw, following up on a promising lead from one of the early issues, promptly turned ''Black Mask'' into an outlet for the growing school of naturalistic crime writers led by Carroll John Daly.  Daly's private detective Race Williams was a rough and ready character with a sharp tongue, and established the model for many later acerbic private eyes.
 
''Black Mask'' later published the profoundly influential Dashiell Hammett, creator of Sam Spade and The Continental Op, and other hardboiled writers who came in his wake, such as [[Raymond Chandler]] and Erle Stanley Gardner. The magazine was hugely successful, and many of the writers, such as Hugh B. Cave, who appeared in its pages went onto greater commercial and critical success.
 
''Black Mask'' reached a sales peak in the early 1930s, but then interest began to wane under increasing pressure from the comic book market, cheap paperback books, radio and the cinema. In 1936, refusing to cut writers' already meager pay, Shaw resigned, and many of the high-profile authors abandoned the magazine with him. From this point onward, ''Black Mask'' was in decline, eventually ceasing publication in 1951.
 
''Black Mask'' magazine was the specific [[pulp magazine|pulp fiction]] magazine that inspired the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film ''Pulp Fiction''. Originally, the title of the film was ''Black Mask'', before being changed.
 
==External links and references==
*[http://www.blackmaskmagazine.com/ BlackMaskMagazine.com]
*[http://www.detnovel.com/Black%20Mask.html History of ''Black Mask'']
 
{{AdventureMags}}
{{pulps}}
[[Category:Pulp magazines]]
{{footer}}
{{footer}}

Latest revision as of 05:35, 4 April 2022

Black Mask
BlackMaskFalcon2.jpg
Cover of September 1929 issue, featuring part 1 of Black Mask's serialization of The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. Illustration of private eye Sam Spade by Henry C. Murphy, Jr.
Editor H. L. Mencken,
George Jean Nathan,
later Joseph Shaw
Categories Hardboiled
Frequency  
Publisher Popular Publications
Year founded 1920
First Issue  
Country USA Flag of USA.png
Language English
Website  

Black Mask was a pulp magazine launched in 1920 by journalist H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan as one of a number of money-making publishing ventures to support the prestigious literary magazine The Smart Set, which Mencken edited, and which operated at a loss. Under their editorial hand, Black Mask was not exclusively a publisher of crime fiction, offering, according to the magazine, "the best stories available of adventure, the best mystery and detective stories, the best romances, the best love stories, and the best stories of the occult."

After eight issues, Mencken and Nathan considered their initial $500 investment to have been sufficiently profitable, and they sold the magazine to its publishers, Eltinge Warner and Eugene Crow for $12,500. Joseph Shaw took over the editorship.

Shaw, following up on a promising lead from one of the early issues, promptly turned Black Mask into an outlet for the growing school of naturalistic crime writers led by Carroll John Daly. Daly's private detective Race Williams was a rough and ready character with a sharp tongue, and established the model for many later acerbic private eyes.

Black Mask later published the profoundly influential Dashiell Hammett, creator of Sam Spade and The Continental Op, and other hardboiled writers who came in his wake, such as Raymond Chandler and Erle Stanley Gardner. The magazine was hugely successful, and many of the writers, such as Hugh B. Cave, who appeared in its pages went onto greater commercial and critical success.

Black Mask reached a sales peak in the early 1930s, but then interest began to wane under increasing pressure from the comic book market, cheap paperback books, radio and the cinema. In 1936, refusing to cut writers' already meager pay, Shaw resigned, and many of the high-profile authors abandoned the magazine with him. From this point onward, Black Mask was in decline, eventually ceasing publication in 1951.

Black Mask magazine was the specific pulp fiction magazine that inspired the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction. Originally, the title of the film was Black Mask, before being changed.

External links and references

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