It’s always fun when the author I select has a connection to the theme of our issue. This month I selected American author Dashiell Hammett, who created the hard-boiled detective Sam Spade and amateur detectives Nick and Nora Charles. Secret Agent X-9 is a comic strip created by Hammett and artist Alex Raymond. It was syndicated by King Features and ran from January 22, 1934, until February 10, 1996.
Samuel Dashiell Hammett (27 May 1894-10 January 1961) was born in St. Mary’s County, Maryland.
He dropped out of high school in 1918 during his freshman year to work and help support his family. Hammet held several odd jobs until he began working for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He started there in 1915, left to serve in WWI as part of the U.S. Army Ambulance Service, and remained a Pinkerton operative until 1922.
During the war, he came down with the Spanish flu and later contracted tuberculosis. For most of his time in the military he was confined to an army hospital in Tacoma, Washington where he met his future wife, a nurse named Josephine Dolan. They married in 1921 in San Francisco. The couple had two daughters, but after Hammett was diagnosed with tuberculosis, health services nurses advised Josephine that she and her daughters should not live with him full time.
He spent weekends with his family, but the strain on their marriage was too great; they divorced in 1937. Hammet continued to support Josephine and their daughters with the income from his writing.
Hammett used his experiences as a Pinkerton operative to create exciting plots and believable characters. He based many of his stories and detective novels in San Franciso. He won praise for the authenticity of his dialogue.
Most of his early work that appeared in Black Mask, a leading crime fiction pulp magazine, featured The Continental Op, a nameless private investigator. During a monetary dispute with the struggling magazine, Hammett took a full-time position as an advertisement copywriter for a jewelry store. He didn’t write for Black Mask until hired a new editor took over.
Hammett’s first four novels were serialized in Black Mask before being revised and edited for publication by Alfred A. Knopf.
Hammett dedicated The Maltese Falcon, considered his best work, to his wife in1930.
During 1929 and most of 1930, he had an affair with writer Nell Martin. In 1931, he began a 30-year romantic relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman. Hammett completed his final novel, The Thin Man in 1933. It was published in 1934, and he dedicated it to Hellman.
He was a staunch anti-fascist and devoted most of his life to left-wing activism. Hammett joined the League of American Writers in 1935 and the Communist Party in 1937. He lobbied to keep the U.S. out of WWII in 1940, but after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted at age 48. He was stationed in the Aleutian Islands and worked on cryptanalysis on the island of Umnak. During his time there, Hammett was diagnosed with emphysema. Because of his “radical leanings, he was later transferred to Fort Richardson near Anchorage, Alaska and moved to the Headquarters Company where he edited an Army newspaper.
In 1945, Hammett was identified by the House Committee on Military Affairs as one of sixteen Army officers and enlisted men who were alleged Communists. General “Wild Bill” Donovan vouched for the men and the charges were dropped. After the war, Hammett toned down his political activism.
In 1948, he began self-medicating with alcohol which worsened his health conditions.
In 1951, Hammett was subpoenaed to testify in front of U.S. District Court Judge Sylvester Ryan about the activities of the Civil Rights Congress, an organization he helped create to defend people arrested for political reasons. After Hammett cited his 5th Amendment right not to answer a question, he was held in contempt and jailed. While serving his sentence, he was assigned the job of cleaning toilets.
After his release, Hammett’s books fell out of favor and he struggled financially. In 1953, the House Committee on Un-American Activities opened an investigation into His life and subpoenaed him to testify. Once again he asserted his 5th amendment rights. This time he was not held in contempt, but he was blacklisted because of McCarthyism.
Hammett’s health declined rapidly and during the final years of his life he was too ill to live alone. Hellman took him into her home and attempted to care for him. Two months before his death, he was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.
A veteran of two wars, Hammet is buried in Arlington Nation Cemetery.
Hammett penned five novels and eighty-two complete and stand-alone short stories. He left unfinished writings, which were later reworked into novels.
Novels by Dashiell Hammett:
Red Harvest (1929)
The Dain Curse (1929)
The Maltese Falcon (1930)
The Glass Key (1931)
The Thin Man (1934)