'The Maltese Falcon' Big Read pre-party attracts many

Miles Archer lay on his back. Two men were over him.

“Hello Sam,” said Phil Speary, in his role as Tom Polhaus, a police detective in the 1930 detective thriller, “The Maltese Falcon.” “I figured you’d want to see him before we took him away.”

Sam is the fictitious no-nonsense private detective Sam Spade portrayed in the book. Archer was Spade’s partner.

Speary was one of three performers who portrayed characters from the 1930’s classic in a reading at a pre-party at the Wichita Art Museum Saturday to kick off the seventh annual “Big Read.”

Hundreds turned out for the event.

This year’s book selection is Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon,” considered one of the cornerstones of American private-eye fiction.

It follows Spade’s entanglement with a mysterious client, Brigid O’Shaughnessy, and the search for a long-sought-after, priceless bird statue.

Since its release, the novel has undergone multiple film adaptations. The best-known is the 1941 version starring Humphrey Bogart as Spade.

Wichita is one of 77 communities to take part in this year’s “Big Read.”

The Big Read program was started by the National Endowment for the Arts to restore reading to the center of American culture.

It was spurred by a study in 2004 that showed literary reading in America is declining rapidly among all groups.

The local program is funded by a $16,000 grant from the NEA. It helps buy books, pays for advertising and helps underwrite some of the events, said Cynthia Berner, director of libraries for the City of Wichita.

“It’s all about programs, books and promotion,” Berner said.

More than 50 partners, including other libraries, universities, cultural organizations, book clubs and others also are hosting or sponsoring events.

The pre-party kicked off the Big Read, which officially begins Oct. 1 and runs through Nov. 15.

“This is just all to get people revved up for the Big Read,” said Julie Linneman, program and outreach manager for the Wichita Public Library, which hosted the event. “We’re trying to get some excitement over really great works of literature.”

Thirty-six events sponsored by a variety of community partners related to the Big Read will be held between now and mid-November.

They include movie nights, book discussions, a mystery dinner theater, a 1930’s party, a geocaching event, a forensics day at Exploration Place, information about birds of prey and falcons and other events.

Kansas author Gaylord Dold, this year’s honorary program chairman, will host a three-part workshop on crafting crime fiction.

Glen Roths and his wife, Barb, attended the pre-party because they love to read.

“We like Sam Spade and Dashiell Hammett,” Glen Roths said.

It’s the third time the couple has taken part in the Big Read.

“We like to talk about them (the books) with each other,” Roths said.

Kaila Schmidt, an English teacher at North High School, attended because she wants to be involved in reading activities.

This way, “I can promote it (the book) to my class,” Schmidt said.

“The Maltese Falcon,” has set the standard for the way detective fiction is judged, critics say.

Besides a detective novel, “it’s also a brilliant literary work, as well as a thriller, a love story, and a dark, dry comedy,” said a review on the NEA website. “The only criticism one could offer Hammett’s private-eye classic is that it is so much fun to read, it might be hard the first time through to realize how deeply observed and morally serious it is.”

A teacher’s guide to using Hammett’s book and children’s events are posted online at www.bigreadwichita.org/ForYoungReaders.

Partnership forms and a complete list of events is posted on the Big Read Wichita’s website at www.bigreadwichita.org/Events.

More information also is available by calling the Wichita Public Library at 316-261-8500.

Reach Molly McMillin at 316-269-6708 or mmcmillin@wichitaeagle.com. Follow her on Twitter: @mmcmillin.

This story was originally published September 21, 2014 at 7:53 AM with the headline "'The Maltese Falcon' Big Read pre-party attracts many."