Samuel Dashiell Hammett was born on May 27, 1894 in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. He grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. At 14 he left Baltimore’s Polytechnic High School to help support his family, eventually being hired at the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the largest private law enforcement agency in the world. He started out as a clerk and was ultimately promoted to detective.
Hammett served in the Motor Ambulance Corps during World War I[1] where he contracted Spanish Influenza[2] and later tuberculosis. When he was discharged he resumed working for Pinkerton and was relocated to Spokane, Washington. His tuberculosis flared up and he spent five months at Cushman Hospital in Tacoma, Washington where he met nurse Josephine Dolan.
In 1921 Hammett relocated to Pinkerton’s San Francisco office in the James Flood Building[3] at 870 Market. While there Dolan wrote to him to tell him she was pregnant. She came to San Francisco and they married on July 7, 1921, moving into an apartment in the Tenderloin above a bootlegging operation. Hammett worked for Pinkerton for another year before being forced to quit due to his bad lungs. He found work as an advertisement copywriter for Albert S. Samuels Co[4], a San Francisco jeweler located on Market Street[5]. Hammett’s first publication was in 1922 for the magazine The Smart Set. He then wrote for the crime-fiction magazine Black Mask where his first novel, Poisonville, was serialized. In 1929 it was published in book-form under the title Red Harvest. Hammett’s second novel, The Dain Curse, featured the same protagonist, a nameless detective referred to simply as Continental Op. Hammett drew on his experiences as a Pinkerton operative for these stories.
In 1930 Hammett and Dolan had a second child, but Dolan was warned that because tuberculosis was a communicable disease, she and her children should not live under the same roof as Hammett. She rented a house in Fairfax north of San Francisco and Hammett would take the ferry to visit them on Sundays. Hammett moved into an apartment at 891 Post and began writing his third and most famous novel, The Maltese Falcon. The book was set in San Francisco and the protagonist, tough talking private detective Sam Spade, also lived at 891 Post. Spade was rumored to be based on a neighbor who lived in the building. The book is filled with accurate detailed descriptions of San Francisco streets, businesses, hotels, apartment complexes and restaurants. In some instances Hammett changed their names, while in others he used the real name. One business that fell into the latter category was John’s Grill at 63 Ellis near Union Square[6]: “He went to John’s Grill, asked the waiter to hurry his order of chops, baked potato, and sliced tomatoes…” This one sentence made John’s Grill famous. A copy of the Maltese Falcon used in 1941 film The Maltese Falcon was purchased by owner John Konstin and still sits on prominent display.
One of the few city plaques in the world commemorating a fictionalized event sits at the mouth of Burnitt Alley off Bush: “On approximately this spot Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade, was done in by Brigid O’Shaughnessy.”
After completing The Maltese Falcon, Hammett and his family moved to Los Angeles. He met and began a thirty year relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman. Hammett and Doran divorced in 1937, though he continued to financially support both Doran and their daughters. Hammett and Hellman traveled between New York and Hollywood. His fourth and last novel, The Thin Man, was published in 1937. Both The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man were turned into films and popular radio shows.
At the age of 47, Hammett enlisted in World War II[7]. He was assigned as a cryptanalyst in the Aleutian Islands. After the war he became president of the Civil Rights Congress, a group that created a bail fund for defendants arrested for political dissidence. The US Attorney General designated the group a Communist front and in 1949 Hammett was subpoenaed to provide a list of contributors to the bail fund. When he refused he was found in contempt of court and spent six months in a West Virginia federal penitentiary. In 1953 he was subpoenaed again to testify before the House of Un-American Activities Committee[8]. He again refused to cooperate and was blacklisted. His two radio programs, The Adventures of Sam Spade and The Adventures of the Thin Man were cancelled, and his books were taken out of print. With no viable income or job prospects, Hammett became a hermit as his health deteriorated. He died in New York City at the age of 66 of lung cancer and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Hammett is considered one of the greatest mystery writers of all time. His novels are unique in that they are filled with common vernacular used at the time and his characters play south of the moral compass. In 1988 Dashiell Hammett Place, a one block alley from Pine to Bush between Powell and Stockton, was dedicated.
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[1] World War I: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4079 [2] Spanish Influenza: story coming November 21st [3] James Flood: story coming October 25th [4] Samuels Jewlers: story coming October 20th [5] Market Street: story coming July 26th [6] Union Square: story coming July 25th [7] World War II: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4222 [8] HUAC Hearings: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4996
