Dashiell Hammett

Born in Maryland in 1894, he left school young and worked a range of jobs before joining the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. That real-world investigative work gave his fiction its sharp detail and unsentimental tone, helping redefine detective stories in the 1920s and 1930s.

He wrote novels and stories that became landmarks of American crime fiction, including Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man. He also created enduring characters such as Sam Spade, the Continental Op, and Nick and Nora Charles, and his work had a major influence on crime writing and film.

Beyond fiction, he was also a screenwriter and political activist. He died in 1961, but his lean style, moral complexity, and street-level realism continue to make him one of the essential voices in detective literature.