March 9th: Mickey Spillane’s birthday

March 9th: Mickey Spillane’s birthday

Hard-boiled crime author Mickey Spillane was born on March 9th.

That’s a pretty rare date. It’s one of only five square birthdays in the years.

What’s a square birthday?

It’s one where the day is the square of the month…March is the third month, and three times three is nine. So, the square birthdays are

• January 1st (1×1=1)
• February 4th (2×2=4)
• March 9th (3×3=9)
• April 16th (4×4=16)
• May 25th (5×5=25)

and there is no June 36th. 🙂

I find it a bit ironic…because I don’t think Spillane’s most famous character thought much was on the square. In the grimy world of Mike Hammer, “fair” ain’t nothing but a hair color. 😉

Mickey Spillane didn’t invent hard-boiled fiction…Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler were already established when

I, the Jury (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

blasted on to the scene.

Spillane would go on to sell hundreds of millions of books, and Mike Hammer would appear in comics (Spillane had been a comic book writer), TV, and movies. Hammer has been played by Darren McGavin, Stacy Keach…and even in one movie, by Spillane.

There are 35 Kindle editions listed at

Amazon’s Mickey Spillane author page (at AmazonSmile*)

If you want to get a solid Mike Hammer library (or give one as a gift…recognizing that these are violent books with what was at the time shocking sexual themes), Amazon has an interesting way to do that.

There are three collections, each one with multiple books (the first one has I, the Jury; Vengeance Is Mine; My Gun Is Quick).

On this page:

Mike Hammer Collection (3 Book Series) (at AmazonSmile*)

you can buy all three collections with one click…not as an omnibus, but as three separate titles.

There are advantages in having separate files…it’s smaller, for one thing. 🙂 That can make searching and navigation easier. I have an “emergency book” on my device which has over 100 books in it (it’s no longer available)…I can’t easily go from chapter to chapter, or example, because it thinks a book is a chapter.

If you want to try it, get a sample…probably at the beginning, with I, the Jury. The books are not available through

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

I’d say, “Happy birthday” but that somehow doesn’t seem appropriate: “Hard-boiled birthday, Mickey Spillane!” 😉

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* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.