Authors and Creators
Dashiell Hammett
Also wrote as Peter Collinson, Daghull Hammett, Samuel Dashiell, Mary Jane Hammett
(1894-1961)

Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland, on May 27th, 1894, and died January 10, 1961, in New York, New York. In between, he was one of the seminal creators in detective fiction. As if creating Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon wasn't enough, he was also responsible for The Continental Op and The Thin Man , the novel that introduced husband and wife sleuths Nick and Nora Charles to the world, and became the basis for a string of popular movies. His name appeared in the credits to Brad Runyon, The Fat Man, and other radio shows featuring his characters, and alongside Alex Raymond's, for the private eye/spy daily comic strip Secret Agent X-9.

He grew up on the streets of Philadelphia and Baltimore. He became a detective in 1915 when he joined the Baltimore branch of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, housed in the Continental Building. You see, Hammett not only talked the talk, but he also walked the walk. He actually was a private detective. He learned the detective racket from James Wright, a short, squat, tough-talking operative, whom Hammett came to idolize (and who would later supposedly serve as the inspiration for The Continental Op). And detecting was no easy racket. Years later, Lillian Hellman, Hammett's friend and lover, wrote of "the bad cuts on his legs and the indentations in his head from being scrappy with criminals."

Hammett left the Pinkertons in 1918, and enlisted in the Army, but tuberculosis contracted while in service prompted his medical discharge less than a year later. In fact, Hammett suffered from poor health, including bouts of tuberculosis and alcoholism, for the rest of his life. He eventually rejoined the Pinks, and worked out of their San Francisco office. In fact, somewhere out there is an account of some of the more peculiar cases Hammett was involved in while he was a Pinkerton Op, including his confession that he knew a man who once stole a ferris wheel. However, the piece doesn't mention the murder of labour organizer Frank Little in the mining town of Butte, Montana, where Hammett was employed as a strike breaker, during a particularly brutal mining strike. The rumour is that the Pinkerton men may have played a part in Little's murder, and that it was this incident that hastened Hammett's departure from Pinkerton's, and possibly helped crystalize his left-leaning views (which later got him into so much trouble with McCarthy and his pals in the 1950's).

By 1922 , Hammett was a fledgling professional writer in San Francisco, publishing his first short story, "The Parthian Shot," in the October 1922 issue of The Smart Set, and shortly after, "The Road Home" in the December 1922 issue of a relatively new pulp mag, Black Mask. His third Black Mask-published story, "Arson Plus," in the October 1, 1923 issue, introduced his ground-breaking character, The Continental Op -- the nameless operative of the Continental Detective Agency (possibly based on James Wright).

Hammett may not have been the first to write about a hardboiled private eye, but, as our pal Jim Doherty notes:

Carroll John Daly was undoubtedly first to publish a short story featuring a hard-boiled sleuth who defines his profession as a private detective ("Three-Gun Terry" in the May 15, 1923 issue of Black Mask), beating the first Op story, "Arson Plus" into print by a few months... But there's no reason to suppose that Hammett would never have created the Op had not Daly created Mack . In fact, it's possible the two stories were being written simultaneously. Daly, being a less careful writer, may have simply beat Hammett to the mailbox.

On the other hand, there's plenty of reason to suppose that Chandler wouldn't have created Marlowe, Macdonald wouldn't have created Archer, Nebel wouldn't have created Donahue, etc., etc., etc., had Hammett not first created the Op.

In other words, while Daly was undeniably first, Hammett was far more influential.

Encouraged by Black Mask's new editor, Captain Joseph Shaw, Hammett became one of the true stars of that pivotal pulp. Hammett's Continental Op eventually appeared in over three dozen stories, some of which formed the basis for the novels Red Harvest and The Dain Curse, were both published in 1929.

Hammett's best-known, and arguably best novel, however, was The Maltese Falcon, featuring Sam Spade in 1930). Of course, a big part of the novel's popularity can be traced to the classic film that was adapted from it in 1941, directed by John Huston, and starring Humphrey Bogart as Spade. The Glass Key (featuring the gangster Ned Beaumont, 1931), and The Thin Man (with Nick and Nora Charles, 1934) were also best sellers; and both went on to become successful films; in fact, a whole string of films, in The Thin Man's case.

But by 1934, he had published The Thin Man, Hammett's career as a writer was almost over. He had met Lillian Hellman, a script reader with ambitions to be a playwright, the previous autumn, and they would soon embark on a long, tumultous relationship, full of high drama and cocktails, politics and art. alas, very little of the art was Hammett's. He never wrote another novel, and he wrote few short stories. Always looking for money, he took a whack at something new: a comic strip, Secret Agent X-9, but only lasted a year. He wrote a few things for radio, or at least lent his nasme to them. Thanks to the success of the film versions of his work, his reputation preceded him in Hollywood, and he wrote a handful of screen stories. He also became quite involved in Hellman's work, acting as a sounding board, at least, and possibly a co-writer, even.

In 1942, swept with patriotic fever, Hammett enlisted in the American Army (he was forty-eight at the time!). Lillian and he had always been active in leftist politics, lending their names to various causes, but with the end of WWII, the political pendulum had swung the other way. In 1951, Hammett was called to testify in the trial of four communists accused of conspiring against the U.S. government. He declined, and went to prison for five months, despite his failing health. He was fifty-seven at the time. Hellman herself was eventually hauled before HUAC, and ordered to testify, to name names. Likewise defiant, she let loose with a powerful speech condemning the entire process, and the senators backed down.

Dashiell Hammett died on January 10, 1961.

He may never never written anything of true significance after 1934 (or at least, nothing close to the magnificense of his earlier work), but the myth of the private eye turned writer lives on. In the seventies, Joe Gores, another San Francisco private eye turned writer, wrote Hammett, a fictitious account of Hammett chucking the writing gig and going after a friend's killer. It was as much a loving tribute as it was a fictionalized biography, and was probably as true as fiction can get. It was eventually also made into a pretty good film.

Raymond Chandler described Hammet's writing style in The Simple Art of Murder:

"Hammett wrote... for people with a sharp, aggressive attitude to life. They were not afraid of the seamy side of things; they lived there. Violence did not dismay them; it was right down their street. Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse ... He put these people down on paper as they were, and he made them talk and think in the language they customarily used for these purposes. "

Or, as Ross Macdonald put it, in a a MWA Anthology in 1952,

"We all came out from under Hammett's black mask."

UNDER OATH

• "Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons."
  (Raymond Chandler, from The Simple Art of Murder)
  .
• "When I was 14 or 15 I read Hammett's The Thin Man (the first Hammett I'd read) and it was a defining moment. It was a sad, lonely, lost book, that pretended to be cheerful and aware and full of good fellowship, and I hadn't known you could do that: seem to be telling this, but really telling that; three-dimensional writing, like three-dimensional chess. Nabokov was the other master of that."
  (Donald Westlake)
  .
• "If not the greatest, Dashiell Hammett is certainly the most important American mystery writer of the twentieth century, and second in history only to Edgar Allen Poe, who essentially invented the genre."
  (Tony Hillerman)
  .
• "As a novelist of realistic intrigue, Hammett was unsurpassed in his own or any time... We all came out from under Hammett's black mask.""
  (Ross Macdonald) ?
  
  
• “Take your Chandler friend by the hand, put a piece of tape over his mouth, and tell him to just shut up and hear how it ought to be done. Hammett’s style does not date, as does Chandler’s, and The Glass Key puts to shame every other hard-boiled writer.”
  (Dilys Winn in Murder Ink)
  

SHORT STORIES

• "The Parthian Shot" (October 1922, The Smart Set)
• "Immortality" (November 1922, 10 Story Book; as Daghull Hammett)
• "The Barber and His Wife" (December 1922, Brief Stories; as Peter Collinson)
• "The Road Home" (December 1922, Black Mask; as Collinson)
• "The Master Mind" (January 1923, The Smart Set)
• "The Sardonic Star of Tom Doody" (February 1923, Brief Stories; as Collinson; A.K.A. "The Wages of Crime")
• "The Joke on Eloise Morey" (June 1923, Brief Stories 8, No. 4)
• "The Vicious Circle" (June 15, 1923, Black Mask; as Collinson)
• "Holiday" (July 1923, The New Pearsons)
• "The Crusader" (August 1923, The Smart Set; as Mary Jane Hammett)
• "The Green Elephant" (October 1923, The Smart Set)
• "Arson Plus" (October 1, 1923, Black Mask; as Collinson; The Continental Op)
• "Slippery Fingers" (October 15, 1923, Black Mask; as Collinson; The Continental Op)
• "Crooked Souls" (October 15, 1923, Black Mask; AKA "The Gatewood Caper"; The Continental Op)
• "The Dimple" (October 15,1923, Saucy Stories)
• "Laughing Masks" (November 1923, Action Stories)
• "It" (November 1, 1923, Black Mask; AKA "The Black Hat That Wasn't There"; The Continental Op)
• "The Second-Story Angel" (November 15, 1923)
• "The House Dick" (December 1, 1923, Black Mask; AKA "Bodies Piled Up"; The Continental Op)
• "Itchy" (January 1924, Brief Stories)
• "The Tenth Clew" (January 1, 1924, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The Man Who Killed Dan Odams" (January 15, Black Mask)
• "Esther Entertains" (February 1924, Brief Stories)
• "Night Shots" (February 1, 1924, Black Mask; AKA"The Judge Laughed Last"; The Continental Op)
• "The New Racket" (February 15, 1924, Black Mask)
• "Afraid of a Gun" (March 1, 1924, Black Mask)
• "Zigzags of Treachery" (March 1, 1924, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "One Hour" (April 1, 1924, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The House on Turk Street" (April 15, 1924, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The Girl With the Silver Eyes" (June 1924, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "Death on Pine Street" (September 1924, Black Mask; AKA "Women, Politics and Murder"; The Continental Op)
• "The Golden Horseshoe" (November 1924, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "Who Killed Bob Teal?" (November 1924, True Detective Stories; The Continental Op)
• "Nightmare Town" (December 27, 1924, Argosy All-Star Weekly)
• "Tom, Dick or Harry" (January 1925, Black Mask; AKA "Mike or Alec or Rufus"; The Continental Op)
• "Another Perfect Crime" (February 1925, Experience)
• "Ber-Bulu" (March 1925, Sunset Magazine; AKA "The Hairy One")
• "The Whosis Kid" (March 1925, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The Scorched Face" (May 1925, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "Corkscrew" (September 1925, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "Ruffian's Wife" (October 1925, Sunset Magazine)
• "Dead Yellow Women" (November 1925, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The Gutting of Couffignal" (December 1925, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The Nails in Mr. Cayterer" (January 1926, Black Mask)
• "The Assistant Murderer" (February 1926, Black Mask; Alexander Rush)
• "Creeping Siamese" (March 1926, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "This King Business" (1927, also The Big Knockover; The Continental Op)
• "The Big Knockover" (February 1927, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The Advertising Man Writes a Love Letter" (February 26, 1927, Judge; satire)
• "$106,000 Blood Money" (May 1927, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The Main Death" (June 1927, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The Cleansing of Poisonville" (November 1927, Black Mask; The Continental Op; part one of what would become Red Harvest)
• "Crime Wanted--Male or Female" (December 1927, Black Mask; The Continental Op; part two of Red Harvest)
• "Dynamite" (January 1928, Black Mask; The Continental Op; part three of Red Harvest)
• "This King Business" (January 1928, Mystery Stories)
• "The 19th Murder" (February 1928, Black Mask; The Continental Op; part four of Red Harvest)
• "Black Lives" (November 1928, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The Hollow Temple" (December 1928, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "Black Honeymoon" (January 1929, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "Black Riddle" (February 1929, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "Fly Paper" (August 1929, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The Maltese Falcon, Part 1" (September 1929, Black Mask; Sam Spade)
• "The Maltese Falcon, Part 2" (October 1929, Black Mask; Sam Spade)
• "Diamond Wager" (October 19, 1929, Detective Fiction Weekly; as Samuel Dashiell)
• "The Maltese Falcon, Part 3" (November 1929, Black Mask; Sam Spade)
• "The Maltese Falcon, Part 4" (December 1929, Black Mask; Sam Spade)
• "The Maltese Falcon, Part 5" (January 1930, Black Mask; Sam Spade)
• "The Farewell Murder" (February 1930, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "The Glass Key" (March 1930, Black Mask; Ned Beaumont)
• "The Cyclone Shot" (April 1930, Black Mask; Ned Beaumont)
• "Dagger Point" (May 1930, Black Mask; Ned Beaumont)
• "The Shattered Key" (June 1930, Black Mask; Ned Beaumont)
• "Death and Company" (November 1930, Black Mask; The Continental Op)
• "On the Way" (March 1932, Harper's Bazaar)
• "A Man Called Spade" (July 1932, The American Magazine; Sam Spade)
• "Too Many Have Lived" ( October 1932, The American Magazine; Sam Spade)
• "They Can Only Hang You Once" (November 1932, Collier's; Sam Spade)
• "Woman in the Dark, Part One" (April 8, 1933, Liberty; later published as a stand-alone novel)
• "Woman in the Dark, Part Two" (April 15, 1933, Liberty)
• "Woman in the Dark, Part Three" (April 22, 1933, Liberty)
• "Night Shade" (October 1, 1933, Mystery League Magazine)
• "Albert Pastor at Home" (Autumn 1933, Esquire)
• "The Thin Man" (December 1933, Redbook)
• "Two Sharp Knives" (January 13, 1934, Collier's)
• "His Brother's Keeper" (February 17, 1934, Collier's)
• "This Little Pig" (March 24, 1934, Collier's)
  
  
• PUBLISHED AFTER HAMMETT'S DEATH
• "A Man Named Thin" (March 1961, EQMM)
• "Tulip" (1966, The Big Knockover; unfinished novel)
• "The Thin Man" (November 4, 1975, City Magazine; previously unpublished first draft; AKA "The First Thin Man")
  .
• STILL UNPRINTED
• "The Man Who Loved Ugly Women" (Experience, ? - pre May 1925)
• "A Tale of Two Women" (Saturday Home Magazine, ?)
• "First Aide to Murder" (Saturday Home Magazine, ?)

NOVELS

• Red Harvest (1929; The Continental Op)...Buy this book
• The Dain Curse (1929; The Continental Op)...Buy this book
• The Maltese Falcon (1930; Sam Spade)...Buy this book
• The Glass Key (1931; Ned Beaumont)...Buy this book
• The Thin Man (1934; Nick and Nora Charles)...Buy this book
• Woman in the Dark (1988; originally serialized in 1933, Liberty Magazine)...Buy this book

COLLECTIONS

• A Man Called Spade and Other Stories (1944, Sam Spade)
• The Continental Op (1945; The Continental Op)
• The Return of the Continental Op (1945; The Continental Op)
• Hammett Homicides (1946; The Continental Op and others)
• Dead Yellow Women (1947; The Continental Op and others)
• Nightmare Town (1948; The Continental Op and others)
• The Creeping Siamese (1950; The Continental Op and others)
• Woman in the Dark (1952; collects original novella and other stories)
• A Man Called Thin (1962).
• The Big Knockover (1966; The Continental Op and others, edited and with an intro by Lillian Hellman)...Buy this book
• The Continental Op (1974; The Continental Op and others; edited and with an intro by Steven Marcus)...Buy this book
• Nightmare Town (1999; The Continental Op, Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, Alexander Rush and others; edited by Kirby McCauley, Martin H. Greenberg and Ed Gorman)...Buy this book
• Vintage Hammett (2005)... Buy this book
  This sampler includes selections from his novels and a short story, "Nightshade," which has not been available for over fifty years. The collection was released to mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. ..
• Lost Stories (2005; edited by Vince Emery and with an intro by Joe Gores)., Buy this book
  Long-awaited collection of 21 long-lost stories, many appearing for the first time in book form. Not Hammett's best or even most important work, but anyone interested in Hammett or detective fiction could do far worse than this impressive book, with an intro by Joe Gores and fascinating and copious notes from editor Vince Emery. Illustrated.
  

NON-FICTION ARTICLES

• "The Great Lovers" (November 1922, The Smart Set)
• "From the Memoirs of a Private Detective" (March 1923, The Smart Set; Hammett reminisces)
• "In Defence of the Sex Story" (June 1924, The Writer's Digest)
• "Mr. Hergesheimer's Scenario" (November 1924, The Forum)
• "Vamping Sampson" (May 1925, The Editor)
• "Finger-Prints" (June 1925, Black Mask; non-fiction)
• "Genius Made Easy" (August 1925, The Forum)
• "The Advertisement IS Literature" (October 1926, Western Advertising)
• "The Cabell Epitome" (January 1927, The Forum)
• "Poor Scotland Yard!" (January 15, 1927, The Saturday Review of Literature)
• "Advertising Art Isn't ART - It's Literature" (December 1927, Western Advertising)
• "Have You Tried Meiosis?" (January 1928, Western Advertising)
• "The Literature of Advertising - 1927" (February 1928, Western Advertising)
• "The Editor Knows His Audience" (March 1928, Western Advertising)
  .
• Hammett also wrote book reviews for The Saturday Review of Literature from 1927-1929 and for The NewYork Evening Post in 1930.

POETRY
(The mind boggles!)

• "Caution to Travelers" (November 1925, The Lariat)
• "Goodbye to a Lady" (June 1927, Stratford Magazine)
• "Curse in the Old Manner" (September 1927, The Bookman)

FILMS

• ROADHOUSE NIGHTS
  (1930, USA)
  Based on the novel "Red Harvest" by Dashiell Hammett and a story by Ben Hecht
  Screenplay by Garrett Fort
  Starring Helen Morgan, Charles Ruggles, Fred Kohler, Jimmy Durante
  
  
• THE MALTESE FALCON (AKA Dangerous Female) ...Buy the video...Buy it on DVD
  (1931, Warner Brothers)
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Starring Ricardo Cordez as SAM SPADE
  .
• CITY STREETS
  (1931, Paramount Pictures)
  Based on an original story by Dashiell Hammett
  Screenplay by Oliver H.P. Garrett and Max Marcin
  Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
  Starring Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sidney
  .
• WOMAN IN THE DARK
  (AKA Woman in the Shadows)
  (1934, RKO)
  70 minutes, black and white
  Based on the novella by Dashiell Hammett
  Screenplay by Sada Cowan
  Directed by Phil Rosen
  Cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg
  Produced by Burt Kelly
  Starring Roscoe Ates, Granville Bates, Ralph Bellamy, Reed Brown Jr., Melvyn Douglas, Cliff Dunstan, Ruth Gillette, Joe King, Nell O'Day, Frank Otto, Charles Williams, Fay Wray
  I don't know much much about this one, but it evidently concerns an ex-con looking for a little peace and quiet, who's pestered by various strange women, ex-lovers and trigger-happy drunks.
  .
• THE GLASS KEY
  (1935, Paramount)
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Directed by Frank Tuttle
  Starring George Raft as NED BEAUMONT
  .
• MISTER DYNAMITE
  (1935, Universal Pictures)
  Based on the short story "On the Make" by Dashiell Hammett
  Directed by Alan Crosland
  Starring Edmund Lowe as MISTER DYNAMITE
  .
• SATAN MET A LADY ...Buy this video...Buy it on DVD
  (1936, Warner Brothers)
  Based on the novel, The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett
  Starring Warren William as TED SHANE (Sam Spade)
  and Bette Davis as Valerie Purvis (Miss Wonderly)
  .
• THE THIN MAN (1934, MGM)....Buy this video....Buy this DVD....Buy the DVD set
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Screenplay by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett
  Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
  Starring William Powell as NICK CHARLES
  and Myrna Loy as NORA CHARLES
  .
• AFTER THE THIN MAN (1936, MGM) ...Buy this video...Buy this DVD ....Buy the DVD set
  Based on an original story by Dashiell Hammett
  Screenplay: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett
  Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
  Starring William Powell as NICK CHARLES
  and Myrna Loy as NORA CHARLES
  .
• SECRET AGENT X-9
  (1937, Universal)
  Based on the comic strip created by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond
  Directed by Ford Beebe and Clifford Smith
  Starring Scott Kolk as SECRET AGENT X-9
  .
• ANOTHER THIN MAN (1939, MGM) ..Buy this video....Buy the DVD set
  Based on an original story by Dashiell Hammett
  Screenplay: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett
  Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
  Starring William Powell as NICK CHARLES
  and Myrna Loy as NORA CHARLES
  .
• THE MALTESE FALCON ..Buy this video ..Buy the DVD...Buy the 3-disc Special Edition
  (1941, Warner Brothers)
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Written and directed by John Huston
  Starring Humphrey Bogart as SAM SPADE
  with Mary Astor as Bridgid O'Shaugnessy
  Lee Patrick as Effie Perrine
  Sydney Greenstreet as Casper Gutman
  Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo
  Elisha Cook Jr. as Wilmer Cook
  
  
• THE GLASS KEY ..Buy this video
  (1942, Paramount)
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Screenplay by Jonathan Latimer
  Directed by Stuart Heisler
  Starring Alan Ladd as ED BEAUMONT
  ..
• SHADOW OF THE THIN MAN (1941, MGM) ..Buy this video....Buy the DVD set
  Based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett
  Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
  Starring William Powell as NICK CHARLES
  and Myrna Loy as NORA CHARLES
  .
• THE THIN MAN GOES HOME ..Buy this video....Buy the DVD set
  (1944, MGM)
  Based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett
  Directed by Richard Thorpe
  Starring William Powell as NICK CHARLES
  and Myrna Loy as NORA CHARLES
  ..
• SECRET AGENT X-9
  (1945, Universal)
  13-part serial
  Based on the comic strip created by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond
  Directed by Lewis D. Collins and Ray Taylor
  Starring Lloyd Bridges as SECRET AGENT X-9
  .
• SONG OF THE THIN MAN ..Buy this video....Buy the DVD set
  (1947, MGM)
  Based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett
  Directed by Edward Buzzel
  Starring William Powell as NICK CHARLES
  and Myrna Loy as NORA CHARLES
  
  
• THE FAT MAN
  (1951, Universal)
  Based on a character created by Dashiell Hammett
  Directed by William Castle
  Starring J. Scott Smart as BRAD RUNYON
  .
• THE BLACK BIRD...Buy this video
  (1975, Columbia)
  Based on characters created in The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
  A sorta sequel, sorta spoof of The Maltese Falcon, with Sam Spade's son hot on the trail of "the Black Bird."
  .
• HAMMETT.. Buy this video.... Buy this DVD
  (1983, Orion Pictures/Warner Brothers)
  Based on the novel by Joe Gores
  95 minutes
  Adaptation by Thomas Pope
  Screenplay by Ross Thomas and Dennis O'Flaherty
  Directed by Wim Wenders
  Executive Producer Francis Ford Coppola
  A Zoetrope Studios Production
  Starring Frederick Forrest as DASHIELL HAMMETT
  Also starring Peter Boyle, Marilu Henner, Elisha Cook, Jr., Roy Kinnear, Lydia Lei, R.G. Armstrong, Richard Bradford, Michael Chow, David Patrick Kelly, Sylvia Sidney, Jack Nance, Elmer L. Kline, Royal Dano, Samuel Fuller
  A fictional, but affectionate, take on ex-P.I. Hammett, as he comes out of retirement to solve a real-life whodunnit. Based on Joe Gores' novel.
  
  
• THE HOUSE ON TURK STREET ..Buy the video ..Buy the DVD
  AKA "No Good Deed"
  (2002, Seven Arts Pictures)
  Shooting Began: July 17, 2001 in Montreal
  Based on the short story "House on Turk Street by Dashiell Hammett
  Adapted by Christopher Canaan and Steve Barancik
  Directed by Bob Rafelson
  Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Milla Jovovich, Stellan Skarsgard, Doug Hutchison
  Evidently this takes serious liberties with Hammett's short story, which featured the Op. Jackson is a San Francisco cop (not a private eye), long overdue for a vacation, who tries to help a friend find his missing daughter and ends up being abducted by a gang of thieves.

SCREEN STORIES
Subsequent to the success of MGM's The Thin Man in 1934, the studio hired Hammett to write screen stories, which would be adapted and turned into screenplays by other writers.

• "After The Thin Man, Parts 1 and 2" (1986, The New Black Mask, Nos. 5 and 6)
• "Another Thin Man" (currently unpublished).

RADIO

• LUX RADIO THEATRE: THE THIN MAN
  60 minute radio special
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Starring William Powell as NICK CHARLES
  and Myrna Loy as NORA CHARLES
  
  
• LUX RADIO THEATRE: AFTER THE THIN MAN
  (June 17, 1940)
  Based on a story by Dashiell Hammett
  Starring William Powell as NICK CHARLES
  and Myrna Loy as NORA CHARLES
  
  
• THE THIN MAN (AKA The New Adventures of the Thin Man)
  (1941, NBC; 1946, CBS; 1948, NBC; 1950, ABC)
  Radio series
  Based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett
  Various castings
  .
• LUX RADIO THEATRE: THE MALTESE FALCON
  (1943)
  60 minutes
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Starring Edward G. Robinson as SAM SPADE
  The first radio adaptation of the Hammett classic, making Robinson the first (although certainly not the last) radio SAM SPADE. Generally considered far superior to the 1946 ACADEMY AWARD THEATRE version with Humphrey Bogart.
  
  
• SCREEN GUILD PLAYERS: THE MALTESE FALCON
  (September 20, 1943)
  30 minutes
  Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre
  
  
• THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE
  (1945, CBS; 1949, NBC)
  (later continued as Charlie Wild, Private Detective)
  Starring Howard Duff as SAM SPADE
  .
• THE FAT MAN (1946-50?, ABC)
  Based on a character created by Dashiell Hammett
  Writers include Dashiell Hammett
  Starring J. Scott Smart as BRAD RUNYON
  .
• THE SCREEN GUILD PLAYERS: THE GLASS KEY
  (July 22, 1946)
  30 minutes
  Starring Alan Ladd, Marjorie Reynolds, Ward Bond
  
  
• ACADEMY AWARD THEATRE: THE MALTESE FALCON ...Listen to it free
  (1946)
  30-minute adaption
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Starring Humphrey Bogart as SAM SPADE
  .
• SUSPENSE: THE KHANDI TOOTH CAPER
  (January 10, 1948)
  60 minutes
  Based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett
  Starring Howard Duff as SAM SPADE
  ..
• THE FAT MAN (1940's, Australia)
  Based on a character created by Dashiell Hammett
  Writers: Unknown
  Starring Unknown as BRAD RUNYON

TELEVISION

• STUDIO ONE: TWO SHARP KNIVES
  (1949, CBS)
  Starring Stanley Ridges, Abe Vigoda
  
  
• THE THIN MAN
  (1957-60, NBC)
  TV series
  Based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett
  Starring Peter Lawford as NICK CHARLES
  and Phyllis Kirk as NORA CHARLES
  .
• THE DAIN CURSE ..Buy the video..Buy the DVD
  (1978, CBS)
  6-hour serialized TV movie, later released as a two-hour version
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Directed by E.W. Swackhamer
  Starring James Coburn as HAMILTON NASH (The Continental Op in the book)
  .
• "FLY PAPER"
  (1994, Showtime)
  An episode of Showtime anthology, Fallen Angels, originally broadcast sometime in 1993-94.
  Based on the short story by Dashiell Hammett
  Screenplay by Donald Westlake
  Starring Christopher Lloyd as THE CONTINENTAL OP
  .
• DASH AND LILLY....Buy this video
  (1999, A&E)
  Made-for-TV biopic
  Written by by Jerry Ludwig
  Directed by Kathy Bates
  Executive producer: Stan Margulies
  Starring Sam Shepard as DASHIELL HAMMETT
  and Judy Davis as LILLIAN HELLMAN
  Also starring Bebe Neuwirth
  So-so bioflick with Sam Shepard as Dashiell Hammett and Judy Davis as Lillian Hellman. This original movie for A&E which covers the tumultuous relationship between the writers, the real life Nick and Nora, over a 30-year period of success, failure, romance and betrayals. Script is by Jerry Ludwig; executive producer is Stan Margulies ("Roots") and actress Kathy Bates (Misery) makes her feature directorial debut.

COMICS

• SECRET AGENT X-9
  (1934-current, King Features)
  Daily and Sunday continuity comic strip
  Created by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond
  .
• THE MALTESE FALCON
  (1946, Feature Books #48, David McKay Publications)
  ..
• SAM SPADE WILDROOT HAIR TONIC ADS
  (1950's)

COMICS COLLECTIONS

• Secret Agent X-9 (1972; edited by Woody Gelman; Secret Agent X-9)
• Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond: Secret Agent X-9 (1990; intro by Bill Blackbeard; Secret Agent X-9)
• Dashiell Hammett's Secret Agent X-9 (by Dashiell Hammett; Secret Agent X-9)..Buy this book

OPERA
(No, really!)

• RED HARVEST: THE OPERA
  (2000)
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Music and libretto by Sean Carson
  Believe it or not, Sean Carson, a grad student in music composition at NYU, and a lifelong Dashiell Hammett fan, is writing an opera based on Hammett's Red Harvest. One scene (based on the chapter called "Laudanum") has already been presented in workshop form in New York City. The full-length version, when it's completed, should be about an hour and 15 minutes, scored for 7 instruments, with 6 singing roles.

REFERENCE
Arranged chronologically

• Nolan, William F.,
  Dashiell Hammett: A Casebook
  Santa Barbara: McNally and Loftin, 1969
  This one scored an Edgar, in 1970.
  .
• Layman, Richard,
  Shadow Man: The Life of Dashiell Hammett
  New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981.
  .
• Nolan, William F.,
  Dashiell Hammett: A Life on the Edge
  New York: Congdon and Weed, 1983
  .
• Johnson, Diane,
  Dashiell Hammett: A Life
  New York: Random House, 1983
  .
• Dooley, Dennis,
  Dashiell Hammett
  New York: Frederick Ungar, 1984
  .
• Mellen, Joan,
  The Legendary Passion of Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett...Buy this book
  New York: Harper Collins, 1996
  Controversial, provocative, sometimes ruthless bio that slices and dices several myths about the so-called "real" Nick and Nora, turning the harsh glare of the spotlight on the often less-than-exemplary behavior of these two self-absorbed, over-mythologized writers. This is how Hammett would have written it, if he weren't the subject.
  .
• Layman, Richard, and Julie Rivett
  Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett ..Buy this book
  New York: Counterpoint, 2001
  An often-revealing, but also too often self-serving glimpse of the man behind The Op, Sam Spade, et al, through his personal correspondence.
  
  
• Panek, Leroy Lad,
  Reading Early Hammett: A Critical Study of the Fiction Prior to the Maltese Falcon
  Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.,2006.
  Buy this book
  Panet, the author of numerous books on crime fiction, including including The Origins of the American Detective Story, New Hard-Boiled Writers, 1970S-1990s and the Edgar-nominated The American Police Novel, hauls the Continental Op up on the slab for a thorough examination. A concluding chapter provides afterthoughts on Hammett’s career, style and place in the history of detective fiction.

• Layman, Richard, editor,
  Discovering the Maltese Falcon and Sam Spade....Buy this book
  San Francisco: Emery Books, 2005
  Everything you always wanted to know about the Black Bird -- includes documents, photos and memorabilia about the book and movies (all three of 'em!), plus a full account of Hammett's detective career, a bibliography and about a zillion other treasure, the perfect gift for fans of Sam Spade, Hammett, film noir, and the history of cinema and literature.
  
  
• Thompson, George "Rhino"
  Hammett's Moral Vision....Buy this book
  San Francisco: Emery Books, 2007
  The latest installment in Vince Emery's "Ace Performer" series is sub-titled "The Most Influential In-Depth Analysis of Dashiell Hammett's Novels" and he's not kidding. It's not only arguably the most influential but also perhaps the first and certainly one of the shrewdest, detailed and best-written. This volume collects the long-sought-after seven part essay that originally appeared in The Armchair Detective back in the early seventies, plus an intro by Hammett biographer/crime novelist William F. Nolan and a new chapter in which English professor-turned-cop Thompson discusses the impact Hammett has had on his own life.
  
  
• Grams, Martin,
  The Radio Adventures of Sam Spade....Buy this book
  OTR Publishing, 2007.
  All you ever wanted to know about the immensely popular radio show starring Howard Duff: the good, the bad and the blacklist. The success of the show upped the ante on Hammett's already popular creation, and the book delves into the subsequent comics strips, magazine articles and radio cross-overs and imitations, including bios on the principal players, a complete episode guide, an unproduced radio scrip and t is reprinted, and a reprint of "Babe Lincoln," a female detective that never came to be. Grams is the author of numerous books on old-time radio and old-time television, , including he staggering Radio Drama A Comprehensive Chronicle of American Network Programs, 1932–1962.
  
  
• Herron, Don, The Dashiell Hammett Tour: 30th Anniversary Guidebook....Buy this book
  San Francisco: Vince Emery Productions, 2009
  A special, 30th anniversary edition celebration of what is pretty much mecca for any true hard-boiled crime buff: a pilgrimage to San Francisco, and Don Herron's Guided Tour of all things Hammett.

WORLD-WIDE HAMMETT: RELATED LINKS

• The Hammett Newsgroup
  Not sure if this is still active, but one can always hope.
  .
• Dashiell Hammett
  A pretty good look at Hammett.
  .
• The RARA-AVIS Bibliography on Hammett
  From the only list that really matters (and one of the few that will have me), comes this very impressive bibliography.
  .
• Dashiell Hammett's Introduction to The Maltese Falcon (1934 Edition)
  .
• The Maltese Falcon FAQ
  Eddie Dugan's definitive Q&A on Hammett's most famous work, including a mountain of stuff of not just the book, but the various film adaptations.
  .
• Expanding on the Thin Man, Finishing the Unfinished Woman:
  Joan Mellen's Hellman and Hammett
  Eddie Dugan's incisive, informative review of Joan Mellen's provocative Hellman and Hammett: The Legendary Passion of Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett.
  .
• Mystery Time Line: Dashiell Hammett
  Part of Mystery Net's extensive Mystery Time Line.
  .
• Salon Magazine: Before "The Thin Man"
  An article dating from the April 17, 2000 issue, about Hammett, Hellman and writer's block, by P.I. writer Dick Lochte.
  .
• The Continental Op
  A 1989 song dedicated to Hammett. Words and music by Irish blues/rock guitarist Rory Gallagher.
  .
• Mystery Man
  Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, herself the recipient of the Hammettt Prize, tackles the thin man. From The New York Review of Books, February 14, 2002.
  .
• Dashiell Hammett in the Dell Map Backs
  Dashiell Hammett Paperback Novels:
  Some great cover shots of some primo collectibles, coutesy of Eddie Dugan. Play it, Prof!
  
  
• Hard-Boiled Heaven: The Maltese Falcon at 75
  In this New York Sun article, Otto Penzler talks about the 75th anniversary of the publication of what he calls "possibly the greatest, and certainly the most famous, American detective novel, Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon." and argues that Hammett might just be the most influential American writer of the 20th century.
  
  
• Talk of the Nation: The Maltese Falcon
  A link to an episode of NPR's Talk of the Nation, featuring a discussion of The Maltese Falcon on the book's 75th anniversary. Guests include Richard Layman, executor of Hammett's literary estate, and Robert B. Parker, the creator of Spenser.
  
  
• Dashiell Hammett: Let's Talk About the Black Bird
  January Magazine does Hammett right with this star-studded feature, including comments from Richard Layman, George Pelecanos, S.J. Rozan, Peter Robinson, Denise Hamilton, Ken Bruen, Loren D. Estleman and a cast of thousands. Plus yours truly, who is presumably there to cleanse the palate. No, really, check this out. An amazing job, and a superb tribute.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to James Stephenson for a lot of the info on this page. Be sure to check out his Hard Boiled Maryland, a great web site focussing on four of Maryland's native sons, James M. Cain, Hammett, George Pelecanos and William Lindsay Gresham. Also, thanks very much to William Denton and the Hammett Bibliography on his Rara-Avis site for helping me plug the holes.