Dashiell Hammett - Man of Mystery by Sally Cline

Dashiell Hammett transformed the face of crime fiction with five novels published in five years. Sally Cline has written an informative and meticulous biography that I found dry and detached, burying the man beneath a mountain of events.

Hammett found inspiration working at the Pinkerton Detective Agency—such as the Fatty Arbuckle and Nicky Arnstein cases. An early bout of influenza and pneumonia led to tuberculosis in 1918, and he found fiction one of the only jobs he could do lying down.

He created the 'hard-boiled detective' with a detached, sardonic third-person voice; a masculine protagonist who, while not necessarily moral, seeks the truth under murky layers of corruption and deceit. Hammett's father was an alcoholic who cheated and abused his wife, and his novels have a nihilistic view of male bonding and betrayal, with fathers rivaling or killing their sons. Hammett himself claimed to value fidelity and honesty, but like his father, was never faithful, often abusive and violent, and drank to excess.

His first novel Red Harvest was published to acclaim in 1929. His next novels, The Dain Curse (1929), The Maltese Falcon (1930), and The Glass Key (1931), moved towards literary existential novels. The Thin Man (1933) was lighter fare. Despite his overwhelming success, he did not write another novel.

Scriptwriting for Hollywood, he met budding playwright Lillian Hellman. At 35 to her 25, they began an intense 30-year relationship, despite both being married. Hammett mentored Hellman to write her play The Children's Hour, honing her work line by line. It was a hit, followed by The Little Foxes and Watch on the Rhine. Hammett suffered from writer's block while Hellman became a top screenwriter. His tuberculosis and alcoholism made him an invalid for most of his life, and despite earning over $100,000 in 1930, he was often destitute.

The second half of this book covers his anti-Semitic causes and Communist Party affiliations, leading to the HUAC trials, where they were both ensnared. Blacklisted, all royalties stopped and the IRS came after him for back taxes. This is history, but the facts grind the biography to a halt.

His unique plots and fresh dialogue compare with the best of Hemingway, and The Maltese Falcon is still considered the best American detective novel ever written. Over 180 translations have been published, and all his work remains in print. With eight pages of acknowledgments, this was heavily researched, but I was not engaged. It lacked a personal touch that would draw me in. There is more to the man than the events of his life.

2014 / Hardcover / 264 pages