The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett

THE LOST DETECTIVE                          NATHAN WARD

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. 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, the 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 Manhe 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. 

PAT'S REVIEW

I came across this book years ago and I forgot to do the review. Having read the “Maltese Falcon” and the “Thin Man” books when I was younger I was always interested in Dashiell Hammett’s life. Here you find out that he drop out of school at the age of 14. Started working and would work numerous jobs including one as a Pinkerton Detective. This little part of his life I had heard or read somewhere. The author goes into his writings and into the making of the films from his books. He also goes into his service in WWI and WWII. Though he does not write anything after the movies are made he is still blacklisted in the ’50s which I did not know about and still did not understand why. I found this to be an enjoyable read I am just sorry I did not do the review sooner. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 4 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com