From the Publisher:
Before he became a household name in America as perhaps our greatest hard-boiled crime writer, before his attachment to Lillian Hellman and blacklisting during the McCarthy era, and his subsequent downward spiral, Dashiell Hammett led a life of action. Born in 1894 into a poor Maryland family, Hammett left school at fourteen and held several jobs before joining the Pinkerton National Detective Agency as an operative in 1915 and, with time off in 1918 to serve at the end of World War I, he remained with the agency until 1922, participating alike in the banal and dramatic action of an operative.
The tuberculosis he contracted during the war forced him to leave
the Pinkertons--but it may well have prompted one of America's most acclaimed
writing careers. While Hammett's life on center stage has been
well-documented, the question of how he got there has not.
That largely overlooked phase is the subject of Nathan Ward's enthralling The Lost Detective. Hammett's childhood, his life in San Francisco, and especially his experience as a detective deeply informed his writing and his characters, from the nameless Continental Op, hero of his stories and early novels, to Sam Spade and Nick Charles. The success of his many stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask following his departure from the Pinkertons led him to novels; he would write five between 1929 and 1934, two of them (The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man) now American classics.
That largely overlooked phase is the subject of Nathan Ward's enthralling The Lost Detective. Hammett's childhood, his life in San Francisco, and especially his experience as a detective deeply informed his writing and his characters, from the nameless Continental Op, hero of his stories and early novels, to Sam Spade and Nick Charles. The success of his many stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask following his departure from the Pinkertons led him to novels; he would write five between 1929 and 1934, two of them (The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man) now American classics.
Though he inspired generations of writers, from Raymond Chandler to Michael Connelly and all in between, after The Thin Man he never finished another book, a painful silence for his devoted readers; and his popular image has long been shaped by the remembrance of Hellman, who knew him after his literary reputation had been made. Based on original research across the country, The Lost Detective is the first book to illuminate Hammett's transformation from real detective to great American detective writer, throwing brilliant new light on one of America's most celebrated and remembered novelists and his world.
Before
he became a household name in America as perhaps our greatest
hard-boiled crime writer, before his attachment to Lillian Hellman and
blacklisting during the McCarthy era, and his subsequent downward
spiral, Dashiell Hammett led a life of action. Born in 1894 into a poor
Maryland family, Hammett left school at fourteen and held several jobs
before joining the Pinkerton National Detective Agency as an operative
in 1915 and, with time off in 1918 to serve at the end of World War I,
he remained with the agency until 1922, participating alike in the banal
and dramatic action of an operative. The tuberculosis he contracted
during the war forced him to leave the Pinkertons--but it may well have
prompted one of America's most acclaimed writing careers.
While Hammett's life on center stage has been well-documented, the question of how he got there has not. That largely overlooked phase is the subject of Nathan Ward's enthralling The Lost Detective. Hammett's childhood, his life in San Francisco, and especially his experience as a detective deeply informed his writing and his characters, from the nameless Continental Op, hero of his stories and early novels, to Sam Spade and Nick Charles. The success of his many stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask following his departure from the Pinkertons led him to novels; he would write five between 1929 and 1934, two of them (The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man) now American classics. Though he inspired generations of writers, from Chandler to Connelly and all in between, after The Thin Man he never finished another book, a painful silence for his devoted readers; and his popular image has long been shaped by the remembrance of Hellman, who knew him after his literary reputation had been made. Based on original research across the country, The Lost Detective is the first book to illuminate Hammett's transformation from real detective to great American detective writer, throwing brilliant new light on one of America's most celebrated and remembered novelists and his world. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-lost-detective-9780802776402/#sthash.71pDVEql.dpuf
While Hammett's life on center stage has been well-documented, the question of how he got there has not. That largely overlooked phase is the subject of Nathan Ward's enthralling The Lost Detective. Hammett's childhood, his life in San Francisco, and especially his experience as a detective deeply informed his writing and his characters, from the nameless Continental Op, hero of his stories and early novels, to Sam Spade and Nick Charles. The success of his many stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask following his departure from the Pinkertons led him to novels; he would write five between 1929 and 1934, two of them (The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man) now American classics. Though he inspired generations of writers, from Chandler to Connelly and all in between, after The Thin Man he never finished another book, a painful silence for his devoted readers; and his popular image has long been shaped by the remembrance of Hellman, who knew him after his literary reputation had been made. Based on original research across the country, The Lost Detective is the first book to illuminate Hammett's transformation from real detective to great American detective writer, throwing brilliant new light on one of America's most celebrated and remembered novelists and his world. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-lost-detective-9780802776402/#sthash.71pDVEql.dpuf
CWL: How did Sam Hammett move from being a Pinkerton detective to writing detective novels? Did being a Pinkerton detective make him a better writer? Ward states that Hammett had the talent to write fiction, poetry and advertising copy but what gave him is narrative style was his work writing reports for the detective agency. The 'Eye That Never Sleeps' also provided Hammett with a cast of indelible characters which he honed and broadened. Ward spent a great deal time in the Library of Congress reading the reports of Pinkerton agents and finds a style of writing that is both 'just the facts' and highly descriptive of criminal environments and situations.
A high school dropout and U.S. army ambulance driver who acquired tuberculosis, Hammett joined the agency at an entry level and he worked to overcome poverty and keep his wife and children under the same roof. The detective magazine market provided a small income while recovery from bouts of TB and while he developed his unique narrative style and voice. Hammett wrote what he knew: San Francisco and investigations. Along with hours he spent in the Library of Congress, Ward mined local San Fransisco literary historians and Hammett researchers.
The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett is a brief biography, full of anecdotes, travels and a glimpse of the American 1920s and 1930 popular culture of literature and film. Ward's narrative style is accessible to most readers who a bring to the book a general knowledge of Hammett's career and impact on literature.
Before
he became a household name in America as perhaps our greatest
hard-boiled crime writer, before his attachment to Lillian Hellman and
blacklisting during the McCarthy era, and his subsequent downward
spiral, Dashiell Hammett led a life of action. Born in 1894 into a poor
Maryland family, Hammett left school at fourteen and held several jobs
before joining the Pinkerton National Detective Agency as an operative
in 1915 and, with time off in 1918 to serve at the end of World War I,
he remained with the agency until 1922, participating alike in the banal
and dramatic action of an operative. The tuberculosis he contracted
during the war forced him to leave the Pinkertons--but it may well have
prompted one of America's most acclaimed writing careers.
While Hammett's life on center stage has been well-documented, the question of how he got there has not. That largely overlooked phase is the subject of Nathan Ward's enthralling The Lost Detective. Hammett's childhood, his life in San Francisco, and especially his experience as a detective deeply informed his writing and his characters, from the nameless Continental Op, hero of his stories and early novels, to Sam Spade and Nick Charles. The success of his many stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask following his departure from the Pinkertons led him to novels; he would write five between 1929 and 1934, two of them (The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man) now American classics. Though he inspired generations of writers, from Chandler to Connelly and all in between, after The Thin Man he never finished another book, a painful silence for his devoted readers; and his popular image has long been shaped by the remembrance of Hellman, who knew him after his literary reputation had been made. Based on original research across the country, The Lost Detective is the first book to illuminate Hammett's transformation from real detective to great American detective writer, throwing brilliant new light on one of America's most celebrated and remembered novelists and his world. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-lost-detective-9780802776402/#sthash.71pDVEql.dpuf
While Hammett's life on center stage has been well-documented, the question of how he got there has not. That largely overlooked phase is the subject of Nathan Ward's enthralling The Lost Detective. Hammett's childhood, his life in San Francisco, and especially his experience as a detective deeply informed his writing and his characters, from the nameless Continental Op, hero of his stories and early novels, to Sam Spade and Nick Charles. The success of his many stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask following his departure from the Pinkertons led him to novels; he would write five between 1929 and 1934, two of them (The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man) now American classics. Though he inspired generations of writers, from Chandler to Connelly and all in between, after The Thin Man he never finished another book, a painful silence for his devoted readers; and his popular image has long been shaped by the remembrance of Hellman, who knew him after his literary reputation had been made. Based on original research across the country, The Lost Detective is the first book to illuminate Hammett's transformation from real detective to great American detective writer, throwing brilliant new light on one of America's most celebrated and remembered novelists and his world. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-lost-detective-9780802776402/#sthash.71pDVEql.dpuf
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