Dashiell Hammet
All of the basic information has been covered in the other posts. Dashiell Hammet is one of my absolute favorite writers, and I have read much biographical information about him. His life is full of contrasted. Writing was means to make money for Dashiell, he didn't have some high calling to it, he needed to pay the bills and he realized people would pay him to write. This is highly ironic because he single handedly created an entire new genre that was unlike anything that had come before. I often think of Edgar Allen Poe's Tell Tale Heart a very primitive precursor to what Hammet created. His genius was apparent in his writings but what he really liked to o was chase women, drink, gamble and party. he made his way into Hollywood and "The Maltese Falcon" was he biggest success as a writer. 3 different movies were made based on the book and the dialog in the book was so brilliant that much off the screenplay quoted the book verbatim. his true political views aren't known and his girlfriend of many years, write Lillian Hellman who is still alive does not share much about him. He want to federal prisons for not releasing the names of people who had donated money to this political action committee. Allegedly the night before he went to court to be taken into custody he told Hellman that he would 'gladly go to prison to preserve the America I know and love" and then rolled over and went to sleep without a concern in the world. He lived considerably long for someone with as many health problems as he had and some of his books were written out of necessity. He once took an $8000 advance from his publishing company to pay gambling debts for a book he had not even started. That book turned out to be the "Thin man" which was also made into a movie. His novels were great but I believe the stories of "The Continental Op" show all the basic building blocks of every crime and mystery novel written today. No one had ever written as he did and his writings inspired generations of other writers. His style and flare is astounding and the dialog seems real. I hate to read bad dialog, hid dialog was not only good because it was highly believable but also because it gave great insight into the personalities of the characters. Alot of different aspects of his characters are inferred or suggested but never really told. There is a very famous Japanese write named Haruki Murakami who claims that Hammett's writing's inspired him, I have read all of Murakami's writings and i can't see it at all in his writing which is bizarre. When reading Murakami's writing you will stop and question his sanity or lack of at many different points in your reading. Bottom line is that he was influential on a scale that very few writers ever achieved and writing was just a means to an end for him.
posted by Schizoid at 9:34 AM
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