Dashiell Hammett Biography
Biography of Dashiell Hammett On May 27th, 1894 in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, Samuel Dashiell Hammett was born to Richard Hammett and Anne Dashiell. In order to help support his family, Hammett dropped out of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute at the age of 13 and found employment in various fields of unskilled labor such as a stevedore, newsboy, and freight clerk. At the age of 20, Hammett joined the Pinkerton detective agency where he served sporadically as a gumshoe for 6 years. This was the period of WWI and during this time, Hammett enlisted in the Army as a sergeant in the Motor Ambulance Corps. While serving, he contracted the virulent disease Tuberculosis, which would linger with him for the remainder of his years and later prevent him from returning to the agency. Although Dashiell Hammett’s term at the Pinkerton agency ended prematurely, his time there was heavily influential on the remainder of his life. Hammett used his experiences as a detective to first write short stories, which were published in The Smart Set, and later in the popular crime magazine Black Mask. He went on to publish five extremely successful novels including the Maltese Falcon. Hammett’s portrayal of the lives and
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business of gritty, bare-boned detectives was contrary to the glamorous sagacity of detectives as they were portrayed in crime writing of the period. This gave his writing a distinctive quality and uniqueness that appealed greatly to readers. After his writing career ended abruptly at the age of 39, Hammett dedicated the remainder of his life to left-wing politics, focusing particularly on civil rights.
At the age of 48, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he reenlisted in the Army to serve in WWII. He was then honorably discharged as a sergeant in 1945. Having lost much of his fortune, he fell into deep alcoholism. After serving a five-month jail sentence for communist association, Hammett was assessed $100,000 in back taxes by the IRS. Shortly thereafter, he was called to testify in the infamous McCarthy hearings. As a result of these hearings, his books were labeled as subversive. In 1955, Dashiell Hammett suffered a heart attack and in 1961 he passed away from lung cancer at the age of
67.
Works Cited
“Dashiell Hammett.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography In Context. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.
McCann, Sean. “Dashiell Hammett.” Encyclopedia of the Great Depression. Ed.
Robert S. McElvaine. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. Biography In
Context. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.
business of gritty, bare-boned detectives was contrary to the glamorous sagacity of detectives as they were portrayed in crime writing of the period. This gave his writing a distinctive quality and uniqueness that appealed greatly to readers. After his writing career ended abruptly at the age of 39, Hammett dedicated the remainder of his life to left-wing politics, focusing particularly on civil rights.
At the age of 48, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he reenlisted in the Army to serve in WWII. He was then honorably discharged as a sergeant in 1945. Having lost much of his fortune, he fell into deep alcoholism. After serving a five-month jail sentence for communist association, Hammett was assessed $100,000 in back taxes by the IRS. Shortly thereafter, he was called to testify in the infamous McCarthy hearings. As a result of these hearings, his books were labeled as subversive. In 1955, Dashiell Hammett suffered a heart attack and in 1961 he passed away from lung cancer at the age of
67.
Works Cited
“Dashiell Hammett.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography In Context. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.
McCann, Sean. “Dashiell Hammett.” Encyclopedia of the Great Depression. Ed.
Robert S. McElvaine. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. Biography In
Context. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.