The Glass Key is a novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett. First published as a serial in Black Mask magazine in 1930, it then was collected in 1931. It tells the story of a gambler and racketeer, Ned Beaumont, whose devotion to Paul Madvig, a crooked political boss, leads him to investigate the murder of a local senator's son as a potential gang war brews. Hammett dedicated the novel to his onetime lover Nell Martin.
Cover of the first edition
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)