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Samuel Dashiell Hammett (May 27, 1894—January 10, 1961) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 author
Author

An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
 of hardboiled
Hardboiled

Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style distinguished by an unsentimental portrayal of crime, violence, and sex.Pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined by Raymond Chandler beginning in the late 1930s, hardboiled fiction is most commonly associated wit...
 detective
Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a branch of crime fiction in which a detective , either professional or amateur, investigate a crime, usually murder. Detective fiction is the most popular form of both mystery fiction and hardboiled crime fiction....
 novel
Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
s and short stories
Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to one of the following.*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , a collection by Liam O'Flaherty*Short Stories *Short Stories , a 1954 collection by O....
. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade
Sam Spade

Sam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known short stories written by Hammett....
 (The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon is a 1930 detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine "Black Mask ". The story has been adapted several times for the cinema....
), Nick and Nora Charles
Nick and Nora Charles

Nick and Nora Charles, or Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Charles , are fictional characters created by Dashiell Hammett in his novel The Thin Man. Nick is a retired private detective and Nora a wealthy society woman whose snobbish family thinks she has married beneath herself; Hammett modeled her on his lover Lillian Hellman....
 (The Thin Man
The Thin Man

The Thin Man is a hardboiled detective novel by Dashiell Hammett. Although he never wrote a sequel, the book became the basis for a successful film series which also began in 1934 with The Thin Man and starred William Powell and Myrna Loy....
), and the Continental Op
The Continental Op

The Continental Op is a fictional character created by Dashiell Hammett. A private investigator employed as an operative of the Continental Detective Agency's San Francisco office, he never gives his name and so is known only by his job description....
 (Red Harvest
Red Harvest

Red Harvest is a novel by Dashiell Hammett. The story is narrated by The Continental Op, a frequent character in Hammett's fiction. Hammett based the story on his own experiences in Butte, Montana Dashiell Hammett#Early Life....
 and The Dain Curse
The Dain Curse

The Dain Curse is a novel written by Dashiell Hammett and published in 1929 in literature....
). In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on film, Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time" and was called, in his obituary in the New York Times, "the dean of the...






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Encyclopedia


Samuel Dashiell Hammett (May 27, 1894—January 10, 1961) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 author
Author

An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
 of hardboiled
Hardboiled

Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style distinguished by an unsentimental portrayal of crime, violence, and sex.Pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined by Raymond Chandler beginning in the late 1930s, hardboiled fiction is most commonly associated wit...
 detective
Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a branch of crime fiction in which a detective , either professional or amateur, investigate a crime, usually murder. Detective fiction is the most popular form of both mystery fiction and hardboiled crime fiction....
 novel
Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
s and short stories
Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to one of the following.*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , a collection by Liam O'Flaherty*Short Stories *Short Stories , a 1954 collection by O....
. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade
Sam Spade

Sam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known short stories written by Hammett....
 (The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon is a 1930 detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine "Black Mask ". The story has been adapted several times for the cinema....
), Nick and Nora Charles
Nick and Nora Charles

Nick and Nora Charles, or Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Charles , are fictional characters created by Dashiell Hammett in his novel The Thin Man. Nick is a retired private detective and Nora a wealthy society woman whose snobbish family thinks she has married beneath herself; Hammett modeled her on his lover Lillian Hellman....
 (The Thin Man
The Thin Man

The Thin Man is a hardboiled detective novel by Dashiell Hammett. Although he never wrote a sequel, the book became the basis for a successful film series which also began in 1934 with The Thin Man and starred William Powell and Myrna Loy....
), and the Continental Op
The Continental Op

The Continental Op is a fictional character created by Dashiell Hammett. A private investigator employed as an operative of the Continental Detective Agency's San Francisco office, he never gives his name and so is known only by his job description....
 (Red Harvest
Red Harvest

Red Harvest is a novel by Dashiell Hammett. The story is narrated by The Continental Op, a frequent character in Hammett's fiction. Hammett based the story on his own experiences in Butte, Montana Dashiell Hammett#Early Life....
 and The Dain Curse
The Dain Curse

The Dain Curse is a novel written by Dashiell Hammett and published in 1929 in literature....
). In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on film, Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time" and was called, in his obituary in the New York Times, "the dean of the... 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction".

Early life

Hammett was born on a farm called "Hopewell and Aim" off Great Mills Road, St. Mary's County
Saint Mary's County, Maryland

Saint Mary's County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland.As of 2000, the population was 86,211, and more recent population estimates are closer to 100,000....
, in southern Maryland
Southern Maryland

Southern Maryland in popular usage is composed of the state's southernmost counties on the "Western Shore" of the Chesapeake Bay. This region includes all of Calvert County, Maryland, Charles County, Maryland and St....
. His parents were Richard Thomas Hammett and Anne Bond Dashiell. (The Dashiells are an old Maryland family, the name being an Anglicization of the French De Chiel; it is pronounced "da-SHEEL", not "DASH-el".) He grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. "Sam", as he was known before he began writing, left school when he was 13 years old and held several jobs before working for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency
Pinkerton National Detective Agency

The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, usually shortened to the Pinkertons, was a private United States security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850....
 (this later became his influence for most his books) He served as an operative for the Pinkerton Agency from 1915 to 1921, with time off to serve in World War I. However, the agency's role in union strike-breaking eventually disillusioned him.

During World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, Hammett enlisted in the United States Army
United States Army

The United States Army is the branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for Army operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S....
 and served in the Motor Ambulance Corps. However, he became ill with the Spanish flu
Spanish flu

The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually severe and deadly Influenza A virus Strain of subtype H1N1....
 and later contracted tuberculosis
Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacterium, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis . Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system, the genitourinary system, the gastrointestinal system, bones, joints, and even the...
. He spent the war as a patient in Cushman Hospital, Tacoma, Washington. While hospitalized he met and married a nurse, Josephine Dolan, and had two daughters, Mary Jane (1921) and Josephine (1926). Shortly after the birth of their second child, Health Services nurses informed Josephine that due to Hammett's tuberculosis, she and the children should not live with him. So they rented a place in San Francisco. Hammett would visit on weekends, but the marriage soon fell apart. Hammett still supported his wife and daughters financially with the income he made from his writing.

Hammett turned to drinking, advertising, and eventually, writing. His work at the detective agency provided him the inspiration for his writings.

Early work

The detective who goes by no name other than "The Continental Operative" served as the hero in many of Hammett's early short stories, largely following a simple investigative formula. His writing was composed largely of minimalist sentences, and a steady accumulation of evidence. These stories culminated in the two Continental Op novels, Red Harvest
Red Harvest

Red Harvest is a novel by Dashiell Hammett. The story is narrated by The Continental Op, a frequent character in Hammett's fiction. Hammett based the story on his own experiences in Butte, Montana Dashiell Hammett#Early Life....
 and The Dain Curse
The Dain Curse

The Dain Curse is a novel written by Dashiell Hammett and published in 1929 in literature....
. In Red Harvest, Hammett achieved a "Poetry of violence" as the Continental Op took a hand in the purging of mob bosses from a corrupt mining town. The Dain Curse was a more straighforward murder mystery as everyone close to a young woman met their demise, leading to the twisted mind of the murderer.

Later novels

As Hammett's literary style matured, he relied less and less on the super-criminal and turned more to the kind of realistic, hardboiled
Hardboiled

Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style distinguished by an unsentimental portrayal of crime, violence, and sex.Pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined by Raymond Chandler beginning in the late 1930s, hardboiled fiction is most commonly associated wit...
 fiction seen in The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon is a 1930 detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine "Black Mask ". The story has been adapted several times for the cinema....
 or The Thin Man
The Thin Man

The Thin Man is a hardboiled detective novel by Dashiell Hammett. Although he never wrote a sequel, the book became the basis for a successful film series which also began in 1934 with The Thin Man and starred William Powell and Myrna Loy....
. In The Simple Art of Murder
The Simple Art of Murder

"The Simple Art of Murder" refers to both a critical essay and a collection of short story written by hard-boiled detective fiction author Raymond Chandler....
, Hammett's successor in the field, Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler

Raymond Thornton Chandler was an United States crime fiction, who had an immense stylistic influence upon the modern private eye story, especially in the style of the writing and the attitudes now characteristic of the genre....
, summarized Hammett's accomplishments:
Hammett was the ace performer... He is said to have lacked heart; yet the story he himself thought the most of [The Glass Key
The Glass Key

The Glass Key is a novel by Dashiell Hammett, said to be his favorite among his works. It was first published in 1931, and tells the story of gambler and racketeer Ned Beaumont, whose devotion to crooked political boss Paul Madvig leads him to investigate the murder of a local senator's son as a potential gang war brews....
] is the record of a man's devotion to a friend. He was spare, frugal, hard-boiled, but he did over and over again what only the best writers can ever do at all. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before.


Later years

From 1929 to 1930 Dashiell was romantically involved with Nell Martin
Nell Martin

Nell Martin was an American author specializing in light-hearted mysteries and short stories. She was at one time the girlfriend of writer Dashiell Hammett....
, an author of short stories and several novels. He dedicated The Glass Key
The Glass Key

The Glass Key is a novel by Dashiell Hammett, said to be his favorite among his works. It was first published in 1931, and tells the story of gambler and racketeer Ned Beaumont, whose devotion to crooked political boss Paul Madvig leads him to investigate the murder of a local senator's son as a potential gang war brews....
 to her, and in turn, she dedicated her novel Lovers Should Marry to Hammett.

In 1931, Hammett embarked on a thirty-year affair with playwright Lillian Hellman
Lillian Hellman

Lillian Florence Hellman was an United States playwright, linked throughout her life with many Left-wing politics causes. She was romantically involved for 30 years with mystery novel and crime novel writer Dashiell Hammett , and was also a long-time friend and literary executor of author Dorothy Parker....
. He wrote his final novel in 1934, and devoted much of the rest of his life to left-wing activism
Activism

Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social change or politics change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversy argument....
. He was a strong anti-fascist
Anti-fascism

Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascism ideologies, organizations, governments and people. Another term for anti-fascism is antifa. Most major Resistance during World War II were anti-fascist....
 throughout the 1930s and in 1937 he joined the American Communist Party. As a member of the League of American Writers
League of American Writers

The League of American Writers was an organization of American writers with ties to the Communist Party USA.It was formed in April 1935 during the First Americans Writers Congress ....
, he served on its Keep America Out of War Committee in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact.

Service in World War Two

In 1942, after Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Empire of Japan Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, later resulting in the United States becoming militarily involved in World War II....
, Hammett enlisted in the United States Army
United States Army

The United States Army is the branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for Army operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S....
. Though he was a disabled veteran of WWI, and a victim of tuberculosis, he pulled strings in order to be admitted to the service. He spent most of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
  as an Army Sergeant
Sergeant

Sergeant is a Military rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
 in the Aleutian Islands
Aleutian Islands

The Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming a volcanic arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi and extending about 1,200 mi westward from the Alaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula....
, where he edited an Army newspaper. He came out of the war suffering from emphysema
Emphysema

Emphysema is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease . It is often caused by exposure to toxin Chemical substance, including long-term exposure to tobacco smoking....
. As a corporal in 1943, he co-authored The Battle of the Aleutians with Cpl. Robert Colodny under the direction of Infantry Intelligence Officer Major Henry W. Hall.

Post-war political activity

After the war, Hammett returned to political activism, "but he played that role with less fervor than before." He was elected President of the Civil Rights Congress of New York
Civil Rights Congress

The Civil Rights Congress was a civil rights organization formed in 1946 by a merger of the International Labor Defense and the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties....
 on 5 June, 1946 at a meeting held at the Hotel Diplomat in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, and "devoted the largest portion of his working time to CRC activities." In 1946, a bail fund was created by the CRC "to be used at the discretion of three trustees to gain the release of defendants arrested for political reasons." Those three trustees were Hammett, who was chairman, Robert W. Dunn, and Frederick Vanderbilt Field
Frederick Vanderbilt Field

Frederick Vanderbilt Field was a great-great-grandson of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt who became a specialist on Asia, worked for the Institute of Pacific Relations, and supported so many openly Communist organizations that he was accused of being a member of the Communist Party USA....
, "millionaire Communist supporter." On 3 April, 1947, the CRC was designated a Communist front
Communist front

Communist Front was originally the term used by the Communist Party of the United States , and then later by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee to label Comintern organizations found to be under the effective control of the , with special emphasis on those groups most active during th...
 group on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations
Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations

The United States Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations was a list drawn up on April 3, 1947 at the request of the United States Attorney General....
, as directed by U.S. President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States . As the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States, he succeeded Franklin D....
’s Executive Order 9835
Executive Order 9835

United States Executive Order 9835, sometimes known as The Loyalty Order, was signed March 21 1947 by President of the United States Harry S....
.

Imprisonment and the blacklist
The CRC's bail fund gained national attention on 4 November, 1949, when bail in the amount of "$260,000 in negotiable government bonds" was posted "to free eleven men appealing their convictions under the Smith Act for criminal conspiracy to teach and advocate the overthrow of the United States government by force and violence." On 2 July, 1951, their appeals exhausted, four of the convicted men fled rather than surrender themselves to Federal agents and begin serving their sentences. "At that time the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, issued subpoenas for the trustees of the CRC bail fund in an attempt to learn the whereabouts of the fugitives...". Hammett testified on 9 July, 1951 in front of United States District Court Judge Sylvester Ryan, facing questioning by U.S. District Attorney Irving Saypol, described by Time
Time

Time is a component of the measurement used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects....
 as "the nation's number one legal hunter of top Communists". During the hearing Hammett refused to provide the information the government wanted, specifically, the list of contributors to the bail fund, "people who might be sympathetic enough to harbor the fugitives." Instead, on every question regarding the CRC or the bail fund, Hammett took the Fifth Amendment
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which is part of the United States Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure....
, refusing to even identify his signature or initials on CRC documents the government had subpoenaed. As soon as his testimony concluded, Hammett was immediately found guilty of contempt of court
Contempt of court

Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court Trial or Hearing , deems an individual as having been disrespectful of the court, its process, and its invested powers....
.

During the 1950s he was investigated by Congress (see McCarthyism
McCarthyism

McCarthyism is the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence....
), and testified on March 26, 1953 before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Although he testified to his own activities, he refused to cooperate with the committee, and was blacklisted
Hollywood blacklist

The Hollywood blacklist?more precisely the entertainment industry blacklist, into which it expanded?was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S....
.

Death

On January 10, 1961, Hammett died in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
's Lenox Hill Hospital
Lenox Hill Hospital

File:WSTM Headcases 0148.jpgLenox Hill Hospital, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, is a 652-bed, acute care hospital and a major teaching affiliate of New York University Medical Center....
, of lung cancer
Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissue of the lung. This growth may lead to metastasis, which is the invasion of adjacent tissue and infiltration beyond the lungs....
, diagnosed just two months before. As a veteran of two World Wars, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia is a United States National Cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, The Robert E....
.

Works

  • Red Harvest
    Red Harvest

    Red Harvest is a novel by Dashiell Hammett. The story is narrated by The Continental Op, a frequent character in Hammett's fiction. Hammett based the story on his own experiences in Butte, Montana Dashiell Hammett#Early Life....
     (published on February 1, 1929)
  • The Dain Curse
    The Dain Curse

    The Dain Curse is a novel written by Dashiell Hammett and published in 1929 in literature....
     (July 19, 1929)
  • The Maltese Falcon (February 14, 1930)
  • The Glass Key
    The Glass Key

    The Glass Key is a novel by Dashiell Hammett, said to be his favorite among his works. It was first published in 1931, and tells the story of gambler and racketeer Ned Beaumont, whose devotion to crooked political boss Paul Madvig leads him to investigate the murder of a local senator's son as a potential gang war brews....
     (April 24, 1931)
  • Creeps by Night; Chills and Thrills (Anthology edited by Hammett, 1931)
  • Woman in the Dark: A Novel of Dangerous Romance (published in Liberty magazine in three installments in 1933)
  • The Thin Man
    The Thin Man

    The Thin Man is a hardboiled detective novel by Dashiell Hammett. Although he never wrote a sequel, the book became the basis for a successful film series which also began in 1934 with The Thin Man and starred William Powell and Myrna Loy....
     (January 8, 1934)
  • The Big Knockover (a collection of short stories)
  • The Continental Op
    The Continental Op

    The Continental Op is a fictional character created by Dashiell Hammett. A private investigator employed as an operative of the Continental Detective Agency's San Francisco office, he never gives his name and so is known only by his job description....
     (a collection of four short stories with "Meet the Continental Op", an introduction by Ellery Queen
    Ellery Queen

    File:Ellery Queen NYWTS.jpgEllery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write detective fiction....
    ) (published as Dell
    Dell Publishing

    Dell Publishing was an American publisher of books, magazines, and comic books. It was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr.. During the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, Dell was one of the largest publishers of magazines, including pulp magazines....
     mapback
    Mapback

    Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location of the action....
     #129
  • The Return of the Continental Op (a collection of five short stories with "The Return of the Continental Op", an introduction by Ellery Queen
    Ellery Queen

    File:Ellery Queen NYWTS.jpgEllery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write detective fiction....
    ) (published as Dell mapback
    Mapback

    Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location of the action....
     #154)
  • Nightmare Town (a collection of four short stories) (published with an introduction titled "A Letter from Ellery Queen
    Ellery Queen

    File:Ellery Queen NYWTS.jpgEllery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write detective fiction....
    " as Dell mapback
    Mapback

    Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location of the action....
     #379)
  • Blood Money (two novellas) (published as Dell mapback
    Mapback

    Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location of the action....
     #53 and #486)
  • A Man Called Spade (five short stories, only three Sam Spade stories, with "Meet Sam Spade", an introduction by Ellery Queen
    Ellery Queen

    File:Ellery Queen NYWTS.jpgEllery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write detective fiction....
    ) (published as Dell mapback
    Mapback

    Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location of the action....
     #90 and #411)
  • Dead Yellow Women (four Continental Op stories, two other stories, and an introduction titled "A Letter from Ellery Queen
    Ellery Queen

    File:Ellery Queen NYWTS.jpgEllery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write detective fiction....
    ") (published as Dell mapback
    Mapback

    Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location of the action....
     #308)
  • Hammett Homicides (four Continental Op stories, two other stories, and an introduction titled "A Letter from Ellery Queen
    Ellery Queen

    File:Ellery Queen NYWTS.jpgEllery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write detective fiction....
    ") (published as Dell mapback
    Mapback

    Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location of the action....
     #223)
  • The Creeping Siamese (three Continental Op stories, three other stories and an introduction titled "A Letter from Ellery Queen
    Ellery Queen

    File:Ellery Queen NYWTS.jpgEllery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write detective fiction....
    ") (published as Dell mapback
    Mapback

    Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location of the action....
     #538)


Published as

  • Complete Novels (Steven Marcus, ed.) (Library of America
    Library of America

    The Library of America is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature....
    , 1999) ISBN 978-1-88301167-3.
  • Crime Stories and Other Writings (Steven Marcus, ed.) (Library of America
    Library of America

    The Library of America is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature....
    , 2001) ISBN 978-1-93108200-6.


Quotes


See also


Bibliography

  • Hammett, Jo, A Daughter Remembers, 2001, Carroll and Graf Publishers.


External links

  • by Hammett estate trustee and biographer Richard Layman on the 75th anniversary of The Maltese Falcon
  • of where every Hammett story appeared
  • portrait of Hammett
  • at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
    University of Texas at Austin

    The University of Texas at Austin is a public university research university located in Austin, Texas, Texas, United States, and is the flagship#University campuses institution of University of Texas System....
  • (KQED-TV, San Francisco, 1982). Written and produced by Stephen Talbot. Winner of Peabody Award and a special Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America.