| Birth: | May 27, 1894 | | Death: | Jan. 10, 1961 | 
Author. He is often credited with creating the "hard-boiled" school of crime fiction. Hammett influenced contemporaries like Raymond Chandler and writers of the next generation like John D. Macdonald and Kenneth Millar (pen name: Ross MacDonald) through his emphasis on three-dimensional characters, realistic depiction of milieu and motivation, and sharp, witty dialogue. Born in St. Mary's County, Maryland, he left school around the age of 14 and worked variously as a newsboy, freight clerk, labourer, messenger, stevedore and advertising manager around Baltimore before landing a job with the Pinkerton Detective Agency. His private political views were at odds with much of what he was being asked to do as a Pinkerton operative (at one point he was told to murder a labor organizer, which he refused to do; the organizer was later lynched). Hammett quit in disgust. During World War I he served as an ambulance driver in France but contracted tuberculosis, which left him in ill health for most of the rest of his life. After leaving the Army he swallowed his pride and re-joined Pinkerton's on a part-time basis, but also wrote advertising copy and started writing for mystery magazines, creating a character called 'The Continental Op' for "Black Mask." His first novel, "The Dain Curse," appeared in 1929, followed the same year by "Red Harvest" (later filmed as "Yojimbo" by Akira Kurosawa, "A Fistful of Dollars" by Sergio Leone, and "Last Man Standing" by Walter Hill); "The Maltese Falcon" (1930, probably his best-known work due to the 1941 screen version starring Humphrey Bogart), "The Glass Key" (1931) and "The Thin Man" (1932, which also became a phenomenally successful film starring William Powell and Myrna Loy). In the 1930s he began a long-term relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman and also became involved in left-wing causes. During World War II, despite his weak health, used personal contacts to get assigned to duty in the Aleutians, editing a servicemen's newspaper among his other duties. After the war his politics got him into black-list trouble, including six months in jail for refusing to name names in an investigation of the Civil Rights Congress. The IRS also attached his royalties, and he was forced to eke out a living teaching creative writing at the Jefferson School of Social Science. From 1956 on he was an almost total invalid, and Lillian Hellman cared for him at her apartment in New York until he passed away at the age of 66. Hammett's burial at Arlington prompted strong objections from not only the FBI but J. Edgar Hoover personally. (The FBI had a 278-page file on Hammett). However it was determined by Arlington officials that burial at Arlington was what Hammett wanted; and it was an honor he had earned. His grave is marked by a standard government issued tombstone due to his wishes that he not be singled out among his fellow veterans, which is why his stone simply reads, "Samuel D. Hammett," with no mention of "Dashiell." (bio by: Paul F. Wilson)
Search Amazon for Dashiell Hammett | | | Burial:
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington
Arlington County
Virginia, USA
Plot: Section 12, Lot 508, Grid Y/Z-23 |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: Jan 01, 2001
Find A Grave Memorial# 438 |
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