Home > Dashiell Hammett

1 Life

Hammett was born in St. Mary's County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. His parents were Richard Thomas and Annie Bond Dashiell (the name being an Americanization of the French De Chiel). "Dash" left school when he was 13 years old and held several jobs before becoming an operative for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

During World War I, Hammett joined the American Field Service in FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. but did not volunteer for dangerous ambulance duty. After entering the U.S. Army, he was assigned to an ambulance company but he contracted tuberculosisTuberculosis is also called TB consumption (TB seemed to consume people from within with its symptoms of bloody cough, fever, pallor, and long relentless wasting), wasting disease White Plague (TB sufferers appeared markedly pale), phthisis (Greek for con and spent the war as a patient in a hospital in America.

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

His work was published primarily in the pulp magazine Black MaskFor information on Black Mask, the surrealist group, see Black Mask (NYC). Black Mask was a 'pulp' magazine launched in 1920 by H. Mencken and George Jean Nathan. When, eight issues later, the magazine was sold to the publishers, Joseph Shaw took over the under the editorship of Joseph ShawCap" Joseph Shaw was the editor of Black Mask magazine from 1926 to 1936. Under his editorship, Black Mask published many works of crime fiction now recognised as classics of the genre, by authors such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanl. Hammett's first story published in Black MaskFor information on Black Mask, the surrealist group, see Black Mask (NYC). Black Mask was a 'pulp' magazine launched in 1920 by H. Mencken and George Jean Nathan. When, eight issues later, the magazine was sold to the publishers, Joseph Shaw took over the was "The Road Home" under the pseudonym of Peter Collinson in December 1922. The Continental Op was in introduced in the October 1923 issue of Black MaskFor information on Black Mask, the surrealist group, see Black Mask (NYC). Black Mask was a 'pulp' magazine launched in 1920 by H. Mencken and George Jean Nathan. When, eight issues later, the magazine was sold to the publishers, Joseph Shaw took over the in a story titled "Arson Plus." The Continental Op would eventually appear in in 28 stories and two novels. In 1932, he also wrote the comic strip Secret Agent X-9, which was drawn by Alex Raymond.

Many of his books were adapted to film, most notably The Maltese Falcon (the 1941 film version, directed by John Huston). The dialogue in his novels was often incorporated verbatim into the screenplay. He was also asked to doctor scripts for Hollywood.

In 1931, Hammett embarked on a thirty-year affair with playwright Lillian Hellman. He wrote his final novel in 1934, and devoted much of the rest of his life to left-wing activism. He was a strong anti-fascist throughout the 1930s and in 1937 he joined the American Communist Party.

In 1942, Hammett enlisted in the United States Army after the United States entered World War II. Though he was a disabled veteran of WWI, and a victim of tuburculosis, he pulled strings in order to be admitted into service. He spent most of WWII as a sergeant in the Army in the Aleutian Islands, where he edited an Army newspaper.

After World War II, Hammett joined the New York Civil Rights Congress , a leftist organization that was considered by some to be a communist front. When four communists related to the organization were arrested, Hammett raised money for their bail bond. When the accused fled, he was subpoened about their whereabouts, and in 1951, he was imprisoned for 6 months for contempt of court after refusing to provide information to the court.

During the 1950s he was investigated by the US Congress. Although he testified to his own activities and was blacklisted, he refused to divulge the identities of American communists.

Hammett died in Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. As a veteran of two World Wars, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.