I call your attention to this fascinating article in The Guardian: Dames, detectives and dope: why we still love hardboiled crime — As political corruption, violence and gender politics gain fresh relevance, pulp noir is attracting new voices and audiences, giving the gumshoe a 21st-century reboot. It puts forth the idea that journalist and publisher H. L. Mencken pioneered a brand new genre — the hardboiled detective story. So who was this Mencken guy? Later this literary format was transposed to the cinema as film noir.