The Cheaper the Crook, the Gaudier the Patter

The Cheaper the Crook, the Gaudier the Patter PDF Author: Alan Axelrod
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1616084022
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Book Description
The Cheaper the Crook, the Gaudier the Patter: Forgotten Hipster Lines, Tough Guy Talk, and Jive Gems explores the rich vocabulary of gangsters, hipsters, jazz musicians, and military personnel of the 1930s and '40s. Entries include definitions, etymology, and examples of usage. This delightful compendium celebrates the linguistic gems cut and polished during the Great Depression, World War I, and the postwar fifties--now forgotten or in danger of being forgotten.

A Dictionary of the Underworld

A Dictionary of the Underworld PDF Author: Eric Partridge
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131744552X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 2680

Book Description
First published in 1949 (this edition in 1968), this book is a dictionary of the past, exploring the language of the criminal and near-criminal worlds. It includes entries from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, as well as from Britain and America and offers a fascinating and unique study of language. The book provides an invaluable insight into social history, with the British vocabulary dating back to the 16th century and the American to the late 18th century. Each entry comes complete with the approximate date of origin, the etymology for each word, and a note of the milieu in which the expression arose.

Criminal Slang

Criminal Slang PDF Author: Vincent Joseph Monteleone
Publisher: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.
ISBN: 1584773006
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
A fascinating addition to any criminal law history library or collection, this book will likely be perused often. With a new introduction by Bryan A. Garner, President, LawProse, Inc. [1-2 new introduction], 292 pp. Originally published: Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1949. Monteleone was a police officer with thirty-two years of service throughout the United States. He compiled this collection of words and phrases used by the "gangster, tramp or hobo" over the course of a career that spanned the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Both instructive and amusing, it contains hundreds of entries relating to criminal matters of the time, such as "Academy" (a jail), "Across the River" (dead), "Grease the Track" (to fall under a moving train), "Looseners" (prunes), "Sprinkle the Flowers" (to distribute bribes), "Suey Bowel" (A Chinese opium den), "Write Short Stories" (to forge checks) and "Zib" (an easy victim). Also includes a table of hobo code symbols.

The Compleat Calhoon

The Compleat Calhoon PDF Author: Fender Tucker
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1605430617
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Book Description
This 420-page chunk of paper contains the complete works of Fender Tucker, including both of his books: TALES FROM THE TOWER and WEED, WOMEN AND SONG. The first half is fiction and the second half reads like fiction, but it's all true, according to his memory of life as it was in Farmington NM in the 50s and 60s. The book also contains the lyrics to every song he wrote back in the days he misspent as a guitar-picking slugabed. Ed Gorman wrote that he enjoyed thumbing through the many short memoirs which add up to a sort of autobiography. Does someone like Fender Tucker deserve an autobiography? Read THE COMPLEAT CALHOON and see for yourself.

The Man with the Crimson Box

The Man with the Crimson Box PDF Author: Harry Stephen Keeler
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN: 1479429775
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Book Description
A man stood on a street­corner with a crimson hatbox in his hand. An archbishop approached him and asked what was in the box. "Wah Lee's skull. I cracked Vann's pete," is the enigmatic reply. From this simple encounter stems the trial of the century. The crimson box does indeed hold the skull of a long-dead Chinaman (or is it?), and the man did break into D.A. Vann's safe (or did he?) One thing is certain: a man died when the safe was cracked, and now somebody has to pay. And it just may be the man's lawyer, Elsa Moffit, attorney-at-law with no cases under her belt -- yet!

Thesaurus of American Slang

Thesaurus of American Slang PDF Author: Robert L. Chapman
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 504

Book Description
Presents America's contemporary and historic slang words and phrases, with brief definitions and usage examples.

The Marceau Case

The Marceau Case PDF Author: Harry Stephen Keeler
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN: 1479429503
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 375

Book Description
"The Babe from Hell!" gasped Andre Marceau just as the wire rightened around his neck. A second later he lay sprawled on the ground -- dead. Close by his body were the tracks of tiny footsteps, beginning nowhere and leading nowhere...the only clues to one of the most shocking crimes of the Twentieth Century! That was the beginning of a mystery that Scotland Yark sleuths worked on frantically for two years and then abandoned in despair, without a solution. Yet it was to be solved, not by a detective, but by a resourceful and imaginative American newspaper man, who tracked down an overlooked clue and reopened the case. The thread of Destiny which brought a horrible death to Andre Marceau stretched through Europe to Japan and Australia and even America!

The Matilda Hunter Murder

The Matilda Hunter Murder PDF Author: Harry Stephen Keeler
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN: 1479425591
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 719

Book Description
"My guiltiest pleasure is Harry Stephen Keeler. He may been the greatest bad writer America has ever produced. Or perhaps the worst great writer. I do not know. There are few faults you can accuse him of that he is not guilty of. But I love him." -- Neil Gaiman It all began with a mysterious black satchel stitched closed with silver wire. Mrs. Matilda Hunter, Jerry Evans’ landlady, finds the satchel and leaves it in his room -- and then is heinously murdered. Before long, Jerry finds out about the contents of the satchel -- a device known as the Michaux Death Ray -- and he's off on an odyssey!

Narcotics Lingo and Lore

Narcotics Lingo and Lore PDF Author: Jacob Edward Schmidt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description


An American Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial Speech

An American Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial Speech PDF Author: Joseph Abraham Weingarten
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Americanisms
Languages : en
Pages : 414

Book Description