Dashiell Hammett

Samuel Dashiell Hammett was born in 1894 in Maryland and left school at thirteen for odd jobs, including the railway. In 1915 he joined the Pinkerton agency, where he worked until 1922 with one interruption: enlisted in 1918, he contracted tuberculosis. He published his first stories in a pulp magazine, created the character of Sam Spade, then stopped writing novels. Summoned in 1951, he refused to give the names of the contributors to a bail fund and was sentenced to six months in prison. Lillian Hellman's companion for thirty years, he died in New York in 1961.

In the catalogue 1

• NovelRed HarvestDashiell Hammett · 1929LiteraturePublic domain