W.R. Burnett
Birth date: November 25, 1899
Died: April 25, 1982
W.R. Burnett's Books
The classic gangster book, which became a famous movie starring Edward G. Robinson. This wasn't a particularly well-written book, from a literary point of view, and it seems rather cliched today, but I'm guessing it was more-or-less the genesis of the gangster cliches. Basically, it's the story of a...
A pretty damn definitive collection on the subject--working so hard to include all the greats that an unpublished screen test written by Spillane is in there, because he didn't do short stories. The lesser-known hidden gems are also definitely worth your time.