Shadow Man: The Life of Dashiell Hammett

by Richard Layman

Book Overview

The legend of Dashiell Hammett, the former Pinkerton detective who reinvented the mystery story in five books written between 1929 and 1934, is carefully examined here by Richard Layman in a meticulously factual account of all that is likely to be known about the real "Continental Op." This unsentimental account of Hammett from his rural Maryland youth through the Pinkerton years in San Francisco, fame as a novelist, notoriety as a Hollywood screen...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151814597
• ISBN13: 9780151814596
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Samson Meets Delilah, Career Crashes Down

The author was aided by other researchers in gathering facts about Samuel Dashiell Hammett's life. He followed leads, found answers to questions, and interviewed anyone who claimed to have known Dash. SDH worked at different jobs before joining Pinkerton as a detective. He joined the Army in 1917, and contracted a lung disease and TB during the 1918 Flue Pandemic. His disability pension wasn't enough for his family; he studied at a Business College and started to work in advertising. He then began to write for publication. In spite of his lung disease he smoked and he drank.SDH began to gain success by 1923 with his short stories; he was too sick for any other work. His advertising job ended when he collapsed with bleeding lungs; he also had hepatitis. He renewed his literary efforts, and success followed. He then wrote longer novels, and gained more wealth and fame. He left his family and moved to New York's literary milieu. He indulged in liquor, women, money, and fame; he was "Nick Charles", not "Sam Spade". Drinking handicapped his Hollywood career, and flushed away his talents. Recycling his writings on radio during the 1940s earned him money; this ended after his refusal to testify in 1951. The next ten years were spent in poverty. After his death in 1961 he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, far to the left of Senator Joseph McCarthy.(This book repeats sentences on the bottom of page 161.)