He gave us Sam Spade, Nick, Nora and Asta and his books, "The Maltese Falcon", "The Thin Man" and "The Dain Curse" created a whole new fiction called the detective novel.
Wikipedia says, "In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on film, Hammett 'is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time' and was called, in his obituary in The New York Times, 'the dean of the... 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction'." And he only wrote five books.
"The Maltese Falcon" went into seven printings in its first year. In the 1941 movie version Humphrey Bogart played a reluctant, yet idealistic detective who epitomized the “hard boiled” hero, now a standard character from "Bullit" to "Rockford".
Happy Birthday to Dashiel Hammett.
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