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)
Hardboiled fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction. The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence of organized crime that flourished during Prohibition (1920–1933) and its aftermath, while dealing with a legal system that has become as corrupt as the organized crime itself. Rendered cynical by this cycle of violence, the detectives of hardboiled fiction are often antiheroes. Notable hardboiled detectives include Dick Tracy, Philip Marlowe, Nick Charles, Mike Hammer, Sam Spade, Lew Archer, Slam Bradley, and The Continental Op.
Photo by Paolo Monti, 1975
