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Donald Hamilton

Born

in Uppsala, Sweden

March 24, 1916

Died

November 20, 2006

Website

http://www.matthelmbooks.com/author.html

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers

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Donald Hamilton was a U.S. writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction but also crime fiction and Westerns such as The Big Country. He is best known for his long-running Matt Helm series (1960-1993), which chronicles the adventures of an undercover counter-agent/assassin working for a secret American government agency.

Hamilton began his writing career in 1946, fiction magazines like Collier's Weekly and The Saturday Evening Post. His first novel Date With Darkness was published in 1947; over the next forty-six years he published a total of thirty-eight novels. Most of his early novels whether suspense, spy, and western published between 1954 a Donald Hamilton was a U.S. writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction but also crime fiction and Westerns such as The Big Country. He is best known for his long-running Matt Helm series (1960-1993), which chronicles the adventures of an undercover counter-agent/assassin working for a secret American government agency.

Hamilton began his writing career in 1946, fiction magazines like Collier's Weekly and The Saturday Evening Post. His first novel Date With Darkness was published in 1947; over the next forty-six years he published a total of thirty-eight novels. Most of his early novels whether suspense, spy, and western published between 1954 and 1960, were typical paperback originals of the era: fast-moving tales in paperbacks with lurid covers. Several classic western movies, The Big Country and The Violent Men, were adapted from two of his western novels.

The Matt Helm series, published by Gold Medal Books, which began with Death of a Citizen in 1960 and ran for 27 books, ending in 1993 with The Damagers, was more substantial.

Helm, a wartime agent in a secret agency that specialized in the assassination of Nazis, is drawn back into a post-war world of espionage and assassination after fifteen years as a civilian. He narrates his adventures in a brisk, matter-of-fact tone with an occasional undertone of deadpan humor. He describes gunfights, knife fights, torture, and (off-stage) sexual conquests with a carefully maintained professional detachment, like a pathologist dictating an autopsy report or a police officer describing an investigation. Over the course of the series, this detachment comes to define Helm's character. He is a professional doing a job; the job is killing people.

Hamilton was a skilled outdoorsman and hunter who wrote non-fiction articles for outdoor magazines and published a book-length collection of them. For several years he lived on his own yacht, then relocated to Sweden where he resided until his death in 2006. ...more

Combine Editions
Donald Hamilton’s books

Average rating: 3.98 · 14,519 ratings · 1,289 reviews · 106 distinct works • Similar authors

	Death of a Citizen (Matt Helm, #1) 3.86 avg rating — 1,903 ratings — published 1960 — 36 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Wrecking Crew (Matt Helm, #2) 3.90 avg rating — 1,097 ratings — published 1960 — 43 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Removers (Matt Helm, #3) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 852 ratings — published 1961 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Silencers (Matt Helm, #4) 3.91 avg rating — 813 ratings — published 1962 — 39 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Murderers' Row (Matt Helm, #5) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 729 ratings — published 1962 — 46 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ambushers (Matt Helm, #6) 4.02 avg rating — 654 ratings — published 1963 — 43 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Shadowers (Matt Helm, #7) 3.99 avg rating — 553 ratings — published 1964 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ravagers (Matt Helm, #8) 4.03 avg rating — 544 ratings — published 1964 — 36 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Devastators (Matt Helm, #9) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 500 ratings — published 1965 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Betrayers (Matt Helm, #10) 4.11 avg rating — 468 ratings — published 1966 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Series by Donald Hamilton

Matt Helm (27 books)
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Donald Hamilton

4.01 avg rating — 13,461 ratings

Quotes by Donald Hamilton (?)

“I'm not responsible for what other people think, only for what I am.”
― Donald Hamilton, The Big Country

10 likes

“When you act like a nice guy, everyone examines your motives with a microscope. When you act like a conscienceless louse, they generally take you at face value.”
― Donald Hamilton, The Wrecking Crew

tags: matt-helm

8 likes

“There's nothing more frightening to me than a character who thinks he knows what a real American is – mainly because it generally turns out he’s convinced it's somebody like him. It seems an odd notion to me. I certainly don't want to live in a country populated with people just like me, God forbid! Anyway, I figure there’s room for a little variety in a nation as big as ours.”
― Donald Hamilton

tags: helm, matt

6 likes

See all Donald Hamilton's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

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Hard Case Crime: books HCC should publish	20	43	Mar 15, 2012 01:04PM

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Donald Hamilton’s Followers (111)

Donald Hamilton

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Series by Donald Hamilton

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Combine Editions
Donald Hamilton’s books