Crime, Corruption, and Wit: The Enduring Power of Dashiell Hammett’s Novels

Photo portrait of Hammett from the cover of his final novel, The Thin Man (1934).

Dashiell Hammett, born May 27, 1894, in Maryland, was a pioneering American writer who transformed detective fiction with his gritty realism and hard-boiled style. Drawing on his own experience as a Pinkerton detective, Hammett's stories introduced a new kind of hero—brutal…