‘THIN’ WITHIN: It seems that “The Thin...

NEW YORK —  ‘THIN’ WITHIN: It seems that “The Thin Man,” Dashiell Hammett’s fifth novel, was not his final work of fiction at all. Published in 1934, the work that served as the basis for MGM’s “Thin Man” movies--featuring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles--turns out now to have been followed by a 1935 story called “After the Thin Man.” The story will be printed in New Black Mask, a paperback anthology of mystery fiction published four times yearly by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/Harvest Books and edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Richard Layman. Hammett wrote the second “Thin Man” story while working as scriptwriter and script doctor for MGM. After MGM bought all rights in perpetuity to Nick and Nora Charles for $40,000 in 1937, the last three “Thin Man” stories were written without assistance from Hammett.

WHEN YOU’RE HOT, YOU’RE HOT. Several of the most lavish exhibits at the recently concluded American Booksellers Assn. convention were those of the producers of audiocassettes. Newman Communications, one of the largest and earliest producers, reports its business up 70% over 1985. But further growth is likely to be complicated by the appearance of many new producers, including book publishers once indifferent to the audiocassette, now rushing to publish their backlists in the newly popular medium.

“Give the Gift of Literacy,” the theme of the convention, was taken up in a distinctive way by “Read-Along,” an audiocassette innovation from Audio Language Studies. Read-Along consists of books abridged to two cassettes’ worth of text each and accompanied by a word-for-word printed text of the abridgment. The importance of being read to in the process of learning to read has received increasing attention. Read-Along makes it possible for adolescents or adults with learning difficulties--not to speak of students of English as a second language--to be read to privately. Read-Along titles range from Grimm’s Fairy Tales to “Octopussy.”

AND WHEN YOU’RE NOT, YOU’RE NOT. Scientific American is for sale. Science 86 is kept solvent only by the determined subsidy of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science. Discover magazine is reported to be losing money at Time, Inc. For all the importance of science and the attractive demographics of the science-interested public, general interest science publishing is struggling. Jonathan Segal of Times Books says that American publishers of science break even only by the aggressive sale of foreign rights.

Among science books in the broader sense, none are struggling harder than computer books, whose sales dropped drastically in 1985. What happened? Industry sources distinguish several phases: 1) badly produced computer books by people who knew computers but not publishing--the beginning; 2) well-produced and well-written books by people who knew both computers and publishing--the brief heyday; 3) hastily produced books by people who didn’t know computers and sometimes didn’t know publishing either--the bandwagon phase; 4) the sudden slowdown as sales of personal computers began to drop--the end.

WHOOPS!: Reports of a multizillion-dollar advance to Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky are greatly exaggerated, Random House says. The figure was “nowhere near” the number mentioned in the Book Trade several weeks ago, the publisher said.

SALES TALK: Over at Atlantic Monthly Press, sold recently by zillionaire entrepreneur Mortimer Zuckerman to Chattanooga businessman/writer Carl Navarre Jr., the current mood, an insider said, is one of “cautious anticipation.” One immediate change: Atlantic Monthly Editor-in-Chief Harold Evans has been named vice president and senior editor of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, and Random House supereditor Gary Fisketjon has been chosen as Atlantic Monthly Press’ editorial director.

NANCY DREW REINCARNATED: As of August, when “Secrets Can Kill” and “Deadly Intent” will be published under the Archway Paperbacks imprint, Simon & Schuster’s Juvenile Publishing Division is launching a new series of mass market paperback originals based on the Nancy Drew mysteries created by Edward Stratemeyer in 1930 and geared for 12- to 15-year-olds. To be known as “The Nancy Drew Files,” the new series will feature more sophisticated stories than the familiar tales Stratemeyer published under the pseudonym of Carolyn Keene, and carried on by Stratemeyer’s daughter Harriet Stratemeyer Adams after his death. Aimed at 8- to 11-year-old readers, the original Nancy Drew mystery series have sold more than 60 million books in the United States and Canada. A new title in “The Nancy Drew Files” will be published each month, accompanied by such public relations gimmicks as consumer sweepstakes, bookmarks, fan club mailings and giveaway booklets.

THE REAL THING? Literary agent Peter Livingston is billing Thomas Oliver’s “The Real Coke, The Real Story” as “the ‘Indecent Exposure’ of the soft-drink industry.” In any case, the book, scheduled for publication by Random House in November, 1987, does promise to reveal what actually went on in the great old Coke/new Coke fiasco.

ADVANCE NOTICE: Barbara Taylor Bradford’s “Act of Will” doesn’t hit the stands until Friday, but Doubleday has already presold a quarter of a million copies. In Bradford’s native England, 1,400 bookstores will feature simultaneous window display of the new novel and Bradford’s earlier book, “Hold the Dream.” The latter has been translated to a four-hour miniseries, scheduled to run in late October.

WOOF, WOOF: In what may just be a publishing first, Sam E. has been appointed Official Mascot of Donald I. Fine Inc. The Labrador retriever/Airedale was formerly associated with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. When asked for a comment on his new responsibilities, Sam E., a birthday gift to publisher Fine from his staff, growled and went back to reading James Herriot’s “Only One Woof.”

THE ENVELOPES, PLEASE: Shirley Nunes, a high school English teacher in Fairfield, Calif., is the $5,000 amateur prize winner in the Barbara Taylor Bradford-Ladies’ Home Journal short-story contest. In the professional category, Janette Turner Hospital won the top prize of $10,000.

Established to honor and bring public attention to British writers under the age of 35, England’s Somerset Maugham Award has been bestowed upon Tim Parks. His first novel, “Tongues of Flame,” will be published by Grove Press next January. Previous Maugham Award winners include Doris Lessing, V. S. Naipaul, Ted Hughes, John le Carre, Angela Carter, Martin Amis, Seamus Heaney, Julian Barnes and Peter Ackroyd.

At PEN, the $7,500 Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award--the largest award in the United States for a first-published book of fiction--has been presented to Alan V. Hewat for “Lady’s Time” (Harper & Row). PEN has also conferred two prizes of $1,000 each for booklength translations of prose and poetry to Barbara Bray for her English translation of Marguerite Duras’ “The Lover” (Pantheon), and to Dennis Tedlock for his rendering of “Popul Vuh: The Mayan Book of Creation” (Simon & Schuster). PEN’s $3,000 Renato Poggioli Translation Award went to Ned Condini, for “Poems by Mario Luzi,” part of a projected anthology by modern Italian poets. And the $1,000 PEN/Nelson Algren Fiction Award, given to promising American fiction writers with works in progress, has been awarded to Mary La Chapelle, 30, of Minneapolis. Her “Three Stories” are part of a collection of short fiction to be set in the Great Lakes states. Finally, the $5,000 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction goes to Peter Taylor, author of “The Old Forest and Other Stories.”

Gabrielle Burton’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” to be published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in October, has won the 1985 Maxwell Perkins Prize. The $5,000 award is presented to a first work of fiction about the American experience.

BUT NOT LEAST. In Los Angeles this weekend (see Book Calendar, p. 10) is Natasha Borovsky, of Russian descent and San Francisco residence, who has just received the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award for her novel, “A Daughter of the Nobility” (Holt).