Dashiell Hammett
(May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961)
Do you want to know what makes Dashiell Hammett stick out amongst other writers of detective fiction? He himself was a detective. In his early twenties, Hammett worked as a detective in San Francisco, building up ideas for the amazing stories he would later produce. After his work as a detective he enlisted in the army and became a sergeant in the Ambulance Corp. Upon returning from the army, due to bad health, Hammett was forced to quit his police detective work and thus fell into the hobby of writing. This is when he began honing the characters and plots that many would grow to praise him for. His style of writing had a level of simplicity edged with excitement that quickly captured readers in blunt, often 'emotionless' themes. Dashiell helped to popularize a particular type of fiction genre called 'Hard-boiled', in which plots are centered around unforgiving acts of violence and crime. Among "The Gutting of Couffignal" some of Hammett's more famous tales were "The Thin Man" and "The Maltese Falcon". Sadly in January of 1961, Dashiell Hammett died of lung cancer and was buried in Arlington National Cemetary for his service in two World Wars. He continues to be well-known for his 'Hard-boiled' style of writing, which you will most certainly get a taste of if you read "The Gutting of Couffignal"!
