Sally Cline - Dashiell Hammett: Man of Mystery

Also by Sally Cline

BIOGRAPHIES and BOOKS ABOUT LIFE WRITING

Life Writing: Biography Autobiography and Memoir: A Writers and Artists Companion (with Carole Angier)

Lillian Hellman: Memories and Myths (forthcoming)

Zelda Fitzgerald: The Tragic, Meticulously Researched Biography of the Jazz Ages High Priestess

Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John

LITERARY NONFICTION BOOKS

Writing Literary Nonfiction: A Writers and Artists Companion (with Midge Gillies)

Couples: Scene from the Inside

Lifting the Taboo: Women, Death and Dying

Women, Celibacy and Passion

Just Desserts: Women and Food

Reflecting Men at Twice their Natural Size (with Dale Spender)

EDITED BOOKS

As Series Editor:

Crime and Thriller Writing: A Writers and Artists Companion (Michelle Spring and Laurie King)

Writing Childrens Fiction: A Writers and Artists Companion (Yvonne Coppard and Linda Newbery)

Writing Historical Fiction: A Writers and Artists Companion (Celia Brayfield and Duncan Sprott)

As Editor:

Memoirs of Emma Courtney (Mary Hays)

FICTION

One of Us Is Lying

Copyright 2014 by Sally Cline

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cline, Sally.

Dashiell Hammett : Man of Mystery / Sally Cline.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-61145-784-1 (hardback)

1. Hammett, Dashiell, 18941961. 2. Authors, American20th centuryBiography. 3. Detective and mystery stories, AmericanHistory and criticism. I. Title.

PS3515.A4347Z59 2014

813.52dc23

[B]

2013041870

Printed in the United States of America

To

BA SHEPPARD with great love

Its raining here but only on the streets where they dont know you are coming

(Dash to Lily)

Many hugs to

Theo, Marmoset, Arran,

and

Esme, Vic, Soren

C ONTENTS

A CKNOWLEDGMENTS

My most important acknowledgments are to Jo Hammett Marshall, Dashiell Hammetts daughter; Julie Rivett, his granddaughter; and Peter Feibleman, Lillian Hellmans heir and companion.

Jo and Julie in Los Angeles and Peter in Barcelona and New York fed me, drove me, talked for hours to provide me with crucial information. Together with Susan Feibleman and Rita Wade, Hellmans secretary, they facilitated my access to Hammett and Hellmans wide network of friends and relations with unstinting generosity.

In grounding my Hammett material, I have had invaluable help from biographer Richard Layman and gained illuminating insights from writers Carl Rollyson, Mark Estrin, Deborah Martinson, Joan Mellen, Tenneti Nagamani, Alice Griffin, Geraldine Thornsten.

Biographer Alice Kessler-Harris warmly invited me to join her on a Thelma-and-Louise road trip to Hardscrabble Farm and Katonah, where Kathy and George Piccorelli painstakingly showed us around Hammetts last home.

I am immensely grateful to the eminent Hammett biographer, novelist Diane Johnson, and her assistant, Ashley Ratcliffe. Diane turned my Paris trip into a triumph, spending hours in reflective talk, then phoning and emailing me.

I have received several significant awards for which I am indebted: the Society of Authors Foundation Award; an International Hawthornden Fellowship (thanks to Drue Heinz and the Board); an Andrew Mellon Fellowship at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, followed subsequently by university archive privileges for three further years; a three-year Arts Council, England, Research Bursary (special thanks to Lucy Sheerman) to travel and work in Europe and the United States; Royal Literary Fund Writers Fellowships and Advisory Fellowships (great thanks to Steve Cook, Eileen Gunn, David Swinnerton), which meant I could write without financial insecurity.

Many archives and institutions have supported me, but five were outstanding: the Harry Ransom Center, Texas University, Princeton University, Stanford University, Wisconsin Historical Society, and Tulane University.

For several years support at the Harry Ransom Center I thank Thomas Staley, Richard Oram, Cathy Henderson, Debbie Armstrong, Bridget Gayle Ground, Richard Workman, Helen Adair, Jill Morena, Kurt Heinzelman, Tara Wenger, Lisa Talen, Pete Smith, Tom Best, Lynn Maphies, Debbie Smith, Bob Fuentes, Lauren Gurgulio, Gil Hartman, Linda Briscoe Myers, the patient archivist Bob Taylor, and especially my close friends Pat Fox and Margi Tenney, who helped with texts, photos, and university materials and shared food, drink, and heartening talks.

In Austin, I thank Martha Campbell for thirteen years accommodation and bountiful breakfasts; the Compuzone team for computer help; my friends Susan and Larry Gilg for stimulating discussions, computer loans, and two years elegant accommodation.

At Princeton University (Rare Books Department), I thank Charles Greene and AnnaLee Pauls for research help, illustrations, and photocopying and my friend Meg Rich, former Reference Librarian/Archivist, who, together with Stuart Rich, shared expertise, homegrown food, and accommodation. In Princeton, I am indebted to Kathleen Petersen and Peter Hahn for the tour around Hammetts house, offered on the day they were moving out!

At Stanford University (Special Collections Department), I thank Robert Trujillo, Maggie Kimball, and particularly Polly Armstrong. Peter Stanskys knowledge about the William Abrahams collection was invaluable, as was his comradeship. I was appreciative of support from Sally and Michael Stillman in Palo Alto, David Fechheimer, the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, and Don Herron for his walking tour of every Hammett site.

In Madison, Wisconsin I am indebted to Harry Miller at the Historical Society and to Susan Bernstein for feeding me!

In New Orleans at Tulane University, I thank Susan Tucker, Leon Miller, and the staff of Sophie Newcomb College and Research Center, the archivists at the New Orleans Official City Archives and New Orleans Notarial Archives, journalists on the Picayune State Item and the New Orleans Times , and Wayne Everard in the Public Library for his unfailing helpfulness and taped materials. I thank Christina Hernandez at Newcomb College Center for Research on Women, Susan Lawson, Kenneth Holdrich, and writer Curtis Wilkie for afternoon tea and talks. My guide-informant, Pattie Elliott, and my researcher, Helena Shoh, were invaluable.

I was accompanied on my research trips to New Orleans, Cleveland, Ohio, Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and Austin, Texas, by my knowledgeable and indefatigable travel companion, art historian Anne Helmreich, who hosted me through libraries, archives, and photo collections and offered food and accommodation. In Cleveland, I was helped by Jean Piety and Elmer Turner at the Cleveland Public Library; Donald Burdick at the Cleveland Research Center, the Cleveland Western Reserve Historical Society; William C. Barrow in Special Collections, Cleveland State University Library; Jo Ellen Corrigan of the Plain Dealer ; and the late Walter Leedy, founder of Americas most amazing postcard collection.