Dashiell Hammett

American detective fiction author and screenwriter.

• Born: May 27, 1894
• Birthplace: St. Mary's County, Maryland
• Died: January 10, 1961
• Place of death: New York, New York

Biography

Samuel Dashiell Hammett has been credited with inventing the hard-boiled detective story. He has also been noted for his refusal to "name names" before a federal judge in 1951, during the height of McCarthyism. Born in Maryland, Hammett in 1900 moved with his family to Philadelphia and then one year later to Baltimore. It was there that Hammett was reared and received what formal education he was able to obtain. In 1908, he withdrew from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute to help his father in a small business venture. Hammett soon left his father’s full-time employ, however, and from 1909 to 1915 he worked at a variety of jobs for firms such as the B & O Railroad and the Davies Brokerage House.

In 1915, Hammett’s life took a crucial turn when he became an operative for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Hammett learned the tools of his trade well and enjoyed the work until June, 1918, when he enlisted in the US Army and became a private in the Motor Ambulance Corps. After his stint with the army, Hammett moved to Spokane, Washington, where he continued to work sporadically as a Pinkerton agent while struggling against a bronchial disorder. He was finally hospitalized for pulmonary tuberculosis. At Cushman Hospital in Tacoma, Hammett met Josephine Dolan, a nurse. The two married in July of 1921 and settled in San Francisco. Their daughter Mary was born in October of that year.

Having given up detective work, Hammett began to publish short pieces in 1922, and he quickly found his niche as an author of hard-boiled detective stories for such pulp magazines as Black Mask. These stories, like those of many other writers, were fast-paced and featured plenty of action, but what distinguished Hammett’s work was its realism, drawn in part from his experience as a detective. Although money was scarce at first, leading Hammett briefly to write advertisements for a San Francisco jeweler, the demand for his stories remained, and by 1927 Hammett’s first novel, Red Harvest, began appearing in installments. With that, his commercial success as a writer was ensured.

Hammett’s health and marriage had not flourished during this time. When a second daughter, Josephine, was born to the Hammetts in 1926, Hammett was told by doctors that his tuberculosis placed the infant’s health at risk. He moved out of the house and, in 1929, as his writing career was peaking, moved to New York and left his family permanently. That year also saw the publication in book form of Hammett’s first two novels (his second was The Dain Curse). These were followed by the novels The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man, which, together with his short detective fiction, established Hammett as one of the most distinctive (though also one of the most imitated) American authors of the twentieth century. In 1934, he was hired as a screenwriter for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His time in Hollywood, however, involved more drinking and other forms of conspicuous consumption than writing. He never completed another novel of note.

Hammett’s reputation grew, nevertheless, because of the numerous film versions of his novels. The Maltese Falcon, directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade, was released in 1941. This film, like the novel on which it was based, illustrates some of the appeal and lasting value of Hammett’s work. With the exception of one or two scenes, the screenplay was taken directly from the novel, for Hammett’s lean prose and strong dialogue lent itself easily to the screen. In addition to the brisk narrative flow and the resultant suspense, there is a profound sense of mystery conveyed through depth of characterization and symbolism. Similar elements are present in Hammett’s other work. The form of writing reflects its origin in the pulp magazines at the same time that it transcends that level.

Although Hammett’s career as an innovative author ended prematurely, the remainder of his life is notable for his friendship with playwright Lillian Hellman and for his politics. In the 1930s, Hammett became Hellman’s lover and friend, with the friendship far outlasting the love affair. Hammett has been credited with helping Hellman develop as a writer, and she remained his closest friend until his death. Like other aspects of his personality, Hammett’s politics were complex. During the late 1930s, Hammett became interested in left-wing political causes, and he contributed to the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War and later became a copublisher of Equality magazine. In 1940, he was named national chairman of a group founded to promote the political candidacy of Communist Party members. This kind of activity was not uncommon as a response to the deprivations of the Great Depression and the rise of fascism in Europe. Hammett ultimately was called to testify before a federal court in 1951. As trustee of the New York Civil Rights Congress bail fund, he was asked for a list of the fund’s contributors. Living up to the standards set by his hard-boiled heroes, Hammett refused to divulge the list or deny that he had access to it. He was cited for contempt and served six months in prison.

After his release, Hammett’s health took a turn for the worse—as did his financial situation. With the help of friends and, later, a small pension from the Veterans Administration, Hammett nevertheless managed to live his last decade with dignity and in a fair amount of comfort. When he died in 1961, his reputation had not fully recovered, but his rather austere funeral was attended by many celebrities. In her eulogy, Hellman called Hammett "a man of simple honor and great bravery." He was buried on January 13, 1961, in Arlington National Cemetery.

Author Works

Long Fiction:

Red Harvest, 1927-1928 (serial), 1929

The Dain Curse, 1928-1929 (serial), 1929

The Maltese Falcon, 1929-1930 (serial), 1930

The Glass Key, 1930 (serial), 1931

The Thin Man, 1934

Complete Novels, 1999

Short Fiction:

Secret Agent X-9, 1934 (with Alex Raymond)

$106,000 Blood Money, 1943

The Continental Op, 1945

The Return of the Continental Op, 1945

The Adventures of Sam Spade, and Other Stories, 1945

Hammett Homicides, 1946

Dead Yellow Women, 1947

Nightmare Town, 1948

The Creeping Siamese, 1950

Woman in the Dark, 1951

A Man Named Thin, and Other Stories, 1962

The Big Knockover, 1966

Nightmare Town: Stories, 1999 (Kirby McCauley, Martin H. Greenberg, and Ed Gorman, editors)

Crime Stories, and Other Writings, 2001

Lost Stories, 2005

The Hunter and Other Stories, 2013

Nonfiction:

The Battle of the Aleutians, 1944 (with Robert Colodny)

Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett, 1921-1960, 2001 (Richard Layman with Julie M. Rivett, editors)

Screenplays

City Streets, 1931

Mister Dynamite, 1935

After the Thin Man, 1936

Another Thin Man, 1939

Watch on the Rhine, 1943

Bibliography

Bruccoli, Matthew J., and Richard Layman. Hardboiled Mystery Writers: Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ross MacDonald. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2002. An illustrated supplemental reference that includes interviews, letters, and previously published studies.

Dooley, Dennis. Dashiell Hammett. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1984. A study of Hammett’s short fiction and major novels in the context of his life. Contains notes, a bibliography, and an index.

Gale, Robert L. A Dashiell Hammett Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000. An encyclopedia devoted to Hammett. Includes bibliographical references and an index.

Gregory, Sinda. Private Investigations: The Novels of Dashiell Hammett. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985. The first chapter discusses Hammett, his Pinkerton experiences, and the hard-boiled detective genre. Subsequent chapters focus on each of his five major novels. Foreword by Francis M. Nevins, Jr. Includes a preface and a conclusion, notes, a bibliography, and an index.

Hammett, Jo. Dashiell Hammett: A Daughter Remembers. Edited by Richard Layman, with Julie M. Rivett. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001. A compelling memoir generously illustrated with photographs drawn from family archives.

Johnson, Diane. Dashiell Hammett: A Life. New York: Random House, 1983. The most comprehensive biography of Hammett, this book adds considerable information to the public record of Hammett’s life but does not provide much critical analysis of the works. More than half the volume deals with the years after Hammett stopped publishing fiction and during which he devoted most of his time to leftist political activism.

Layman, Richard. Shadow Man: The Life of Dashiell Hammett. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/Bruccoli-Clark, 1981. An academic who earlier produced a descriptive bibliography of Hammett, Layman provides interpretations of the works. While he holds Hammett in high regard as a major figure in twentieth century American fiction, he does not present a totally admiring portrait of the man.

McGurl, Mark. "Making ‘Literature’ of It: Hammett and High Culture." American Literary History 9 (Winter, 1997): 702-717. Discusses Hammett’s response to modernism’s divide between high and low culture; argues that Hammett’s detective fiction is what modernism looks like to mass culture and what mass culture looks like to modernism; discusses Hammett’s habitual lack of seriousness in regard to his own representations.

Marling, William. The American Roman Noir: Hammett, Cain, and Chandler. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995. An examination of the works of Hammett, Chandler, and James M. Cain by a reviewer. Marling sees their writings as a response to the events following 1927, which he describes as a pivotal year in terms of technology and economics.

Mellen, Joan. Hellman and Hammett: The Legendary Passion of Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett. New York: HarperCollins, 1996. Although primarily a biographical study, this scrupulously researched work provides insight into the backgrounds of Hammett’s fiction. Includes very detailed notes and bibliography.

Metress, Christopher, ed. The Critical Response to Dashiell Hammett. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. A generous compilation of reviews and general studies, with a comprehensive introduction, chronology, and bibliography.

Nolan, William F. Hammett: A Life at the Edge. New York: Congdon and Weed, 1983. Author of the first full-length study of Hammett in 1969, Nolan here builds upon his earlier work and that of others to present a portrait of a singularly private man with a code of honor that paralleled those of his detectives.

Nyman, Jopi. Hard-Boiled Fiction and Dark Romanticism. New York: Peter Lang, 1998. Studies the fiction of Hammett, James M. Cain, and Ernest Hemingway. Includes bibliographical references

Panek, LeRoy Lad. Reading Early Hammett: A Critical Study of the Fiction Prior to the "Maltese Falcon." Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2004. An absorbing analysis of Hammett’s earliest work, including magazine writing and essays on various topics, and particular focus on Hammett’s Continental Op character.

Skenazy, Paul. "The ‘Heart’s Field’: Dashiell Hammett’s Anonymous Territory." In San Francisco in Fiction: Essays in a Regional Literature, edited by David Fine and Paul Skenazy. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. A consideration of the importance of history and place in Hammett’s fiction. Argues that it is wrong to associate Hammett’s concern with expedience, environment, habit, training, and chance with a specifically Wild West tradition.

Symons, Julian. Dashiell Hammett. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. A brief but substantive book by a leading English writer of crime fiction and criticism. Symons believes that Hammett created "A specifically American brand of crime story . . . that transcends the form and limits of [its] genre and can be compared with the best fiction produced in America between the two world wars." His considerations of the works support this judgment. Contains a useful select bibliography.

Walker, John. "City Jungles and Expressionist Reifications from Brecht to Hammett." Twentieth Century Literature 44 (Spring, 1998): 119-133. Discusses how the fiction of Brecht and Hammett presents the urban landscape as technological anti-utopia and primeval jungle. Discusses the urban jungle metaphor as background for both expressionism and noir. Argues that Hammett reproduces the model of human relations in Bertolt Brecht’s fiction.

Wheat, Edward M. "The Post-Modern Detective: The Aesthetic Politics of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op." The Midwest Quarterly 36 (Spring, 1995): 237-249. Examines the meaning of the postmodern era through the character and world of the hard-boiled detective. Claims that Hammett’s Continental Op is a postmodernist who does not find truth and justice but produces a fictive account.

Wolfe, Peter. Beams Falling: The Art of Dashiell Hammett. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1980. A study with a focus on showing the relationship of each work to Hammett's total output.