In Praise of Dashiell Hammett

This is the third in a series of blog posts that discuss novelists I admire and who have influenced my own writing.

The Legacy of Dashiell Hammett

Samuel Dashiell Hammett is often referred to as the originator of the hard-boiled detective novel. In his early life, Hammett was a prolific writer with more than 80 short stories, many of them serialized in the Black Mask pulp magazine, and five novels. He also wrote a comic strip and radio plays, as well as collaborating on screenplays.

Hammett is probably best known for his private eye Sam Spade, portrayed by Humphrey Bogart in the film adaptation of The Maltese Falcon. He also created the Continental Op, who appeared in the novels Red Harvest and The Dain Curse and, like Spade, was a character drawn from Hammett's own experience as an operative with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. In addition, Hammett wrote The Thin Man with the husband and wife team of Nick and Nora Charles, who were popularized in films of the day by William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Hammett is noted for his realism, his crisp, colorful language, and his “lean” story-telling style. He was a major influence on Raymond Chandler, who said of Hammett in The Simple Art of Murder: “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." Subsequent writers of hard-boiled detective series owe a huge debt to Hammett: Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer (named after Miles Archer, Spade's deceased partner in The Maltese Falcon) were worthy successors to Sam Spade and the Continental Op. Hammett also influenced such diverse writers as Erle Stanley Gardner in his Bertha Cool and Donald Lam detective series under the pen name A.A. Fair, and Mickey Spillane in his Mike Hammer series.

Influence on My Own Writing

What impresses me most in Hammett's writing, aside from his masterful story-telling, is his central theme: the elusiveness of truth. Think of Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, who is lied to and misled, even by his lover, at every turn in his pursuit of the truth. Compare Donaghue and Stainer in The Fregoli Delusion, who must unravel lies to determine if the testimony of an unreliable witness can be believed.
.
Internet Resources

If you'd like to [re}acquaint yourself with Dashiell Hammett--his life and works--a good starting point is his website at http://www.mikehumbert.com/Dashiell_H....

Happy Reading!