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Literary Masters V3 Hammett (Gale Study Guides to Great Literature: Literary Masters)

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A brief, well-illustrated (27 photos, including the report card from Hammett's single semester of high school), and handsomely-designed biography of Dashiell Hammett, this hardcover is aimed as an introduction to the creator of Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man, but it provides gems to surprise even longtime fans of Hammett. (Such as Hammett's own account, unavailable anywhere else, of who did it in his original, never-completed version of The Thin Man.)

Layman wrote this book after he had done his research for the Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett : 1921-1960 book, so it is based on more recent research than other biographies.

It starts with a chronology of Hammett's life, then a biographical section, a section "Hammett at Work" giving a history of his writing and how he wrote, a "Hammett's Era" section on how events of the author's times affected him, and 33 pages summarizing "Hammett's Works." A section called "Hammett on Hammett" provides four interviews with Hammett, plus a fellow-soldier's account of being stationed with Hammett in Alaska during World War II, and an article by Hammett's brother.

A 59-page section, "Hammett as Studied," provides what is possibly the best overview anywhere of the shifting critical controversies over Hammett's work. In addition to Layman's own well-informed insights, this section reprints Christopher Metress' introduction to The Critical Response to Dashiell Hammett (Critical Responses in Arts and Letters), David Bazelon's influential essay "Dashiell Hammett's Private Eye," and John Cawelti's "Dashiell Hammett."

Finally, the book wraps up with a list of thought-provoking study questions, a glossary of Hammett-related literary terms, and a very useful annotated bibliography of books by and about Hammett.

If you haven't read any other biographies of Hammett, this book and Dashiell Hammett: A Daughter Remembers are two very good places to start.