Maltese Falcon Society Maltese Falcon Society The Maltese Falcon Society is an organization for admirers of Dashiell Hammett, his novel "The Maltese Falcon," and hardboiled mystery books and writers in general. Founded in San Francisco in 1981, the organization is no longer active in the United States; however, a chapter in Japan has been active continuously since 1982. The Japanese branch of the society presents the Falcon Award, Japan's highest honor in the mystery field, to honor the best hardboiled mystery novel published in Japan. The Maltese Falcon Society was founded in San Francisco on May 20, 1981 by literary historian and biographer
Maltese literature published in 1842, followed by "Ħrejjef bil-Malti" "(Legends in Maltese)" and "Ħrejjef u Ċajt bil-Malti" "(Legends and Jokes in Maltese)" in 1861 and 1863 respectively. The same author published the first history book in the Maltese language entitled "Storja ta’ Malta Miktuba għall-Poplu" "(The People's History of Malta)" in 1862. 1863 saw the publication of the first novel in Maltese, "Elvira Jew Imħabba ta’ Tirann" "(Elvira, or the Love of a Tyrant)" by the Neapolitan author, Giuseppe Folliero de Luna. Anton Manwel Caruana's novel "Ineż Farruġ" (1889), the first Maltese novel, was modelled on traditional Italian historical novels, such as