What Do You Think Of Dashiell Hammett? - I just learned that

[Comrade Gorley]

I have always been a fan of mystery. I have read the complete Sherlock Holmes (as well as several pastiches), all of Edgar Allan Poe's mysteries (Dupin, The Gold Bug etc.), a great deal of Agatha Christie's work (including her plays)- and Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. I have read almost all of Hammett's novels and recently purchased "Nightmare Town"- a collection of his most hard-to-find short stories. I have read and re-read "The Maltese Falcon" and have watched and re-watched the film adaption. However, until now all I basically knew about him was that he used to be a Pinkerton detective, that his first name was Samuel, and that Sam Spade was based on (and named after) himself. However, after doing some research I've learned that he was an outspoken Marxist! It's not a matter of interpretation from his stories, he actually joined the American Communist Party in 1931 and even faced down Senator Joe McCarthy himself.


In 1951, Hammett was found guilty of contempt of court after refusing to testify against communists convicted of Smith Act violations; he did six months time in a federal prison. In '53 he was summoned to Washington by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who asked him during testimony if the government should fund purchases for library books written by avowed communist sympathizers. To a visibly confused McCarthy, Hammett replied, "If I were fighting Communism, I don't think I would do it by giving people any books at all."

-http://www.arlingtoncemetery.com/shammett.htm

There's a lot more information about Hammett (and his Communism) on the web, for information about Hammett himself and his works (as well as works of every other great private eye writer- and fictional private eye) I'd advice you to go to http://www.thrillingdetective.com

What do you all think?

[The Muckraker]

Strange, isn't it? I think I first read about it in "The New Yorker," but I'm not sure. What's surprising is that he started as a Pinkerton guard! They were often used to break strikes, usually through the use of violence against workers.

I think The Maltese Falcon is probably his best. You agree?

[Comrade Gorley]

Most likely, but the Spade short stories aren't actually all that good. A GREAT(non-Spade) short story is "The Ruffian's Wife". The villain contains many aspects of both Caspar Gutman (fat, calm, intimidating) and Joel Cairo (Greek, perfumed). And his story often criticize the government, usually cops, particularly in the aforementioned "Maltese Falcon", showing them as corrupt and biased while the heroes are generally un-prejudiced (except towards the authorities, of course).

[The Muckraker]

I've not read a lot of him, but I agree that the short stories I read were not that good as literature. Falcon, on the other hand, has a maturity and depth to it that I didn't see in his other writing. Maybe not up to Steinbeck, but certainly not throw away fiction, either, and a helluva lot better than most of the crap being published today.

[Comrade Gorley]

It's amazing (and great) that the Bogart film didn't scrap the ending for some happy bullshit, like Hollywood had (and has) a bad tendancy to do. The last few shots (and dialouge) were incredible and memorable.

(Edited by Comrade Gorley at 9:19 pm on May 4, 2003)