The Continental Op
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The Continental Op is a fictional character created by Dashiell Hammett. He is a private investigator employed as an operative of the Continental Detective Agency's San Francisco office. The stories are all told in the first person and his name is never given.
November 1927 issue of Black Mask, featuring "The Cleansing of Poisonville"
Dashiell Hammett
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Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the characters he created are Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, The Continental Op and the comic strip character Secret Agent X-9.
Photo portrait of Hammett from the cover of his final novel, The Thin Man (1934)
Building at 891 Post St., San Francisco, where Hammett lived while writing The Maltese Falcon: The character Sam Spade may have also lived in the building.
Lillian Hellman in 1935
Hammett's grave, in Arlington National Cemetery, (section 12, site 508)