Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon was serialized in the pages of Black Mask magazine in 1929. In 1930, the novel was published by Alfred A Knopf and became a sensation. Hammett's protagonist, Sam Spade, has endured as one of the most famous fictional private eyes in history, and The Maltese Falcon became the prototype for the hardboiled detective story. This Field Notes Brand Books "1943 Edition" of The Maltese Falcon contains the full text as it originally appeared in the pages of Black Mask, formatted in the style of the unusual-but-compelling Armed Services Editions, paperback editions of popular fiction and non-fiction published by the Department of War and distributed to troops during World War II. It includes a foreword by author Kevin Guilfoile, who explores the history of both the text and the format, along with a thoughtful evaluation of Hammett's story and voice, from a modern perspective.