<p>Quite simply, <em>Black Mask</em> magazine is the most important Detective fiction magazine ever published, printing the most significant works of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner, among others over its 20-year life. This facsimile of the September 1929 issue represents <em>Black Mask</em> at its peak with the first installment of <em>The Maltese Falcon</em> by Dashiell Hammett, along with stories by Erle Stanley Gardner, Horace McCoy, Frederick Nebel, and Raoul Whitfield.</p><p></p>