WRITER

Dashiell Hammett

1894 - 1961

Dashiell Hammett

Samuel Dashiell Hammett ( DASH-əl HAM-it; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Dashiell Hammett has received more than 2,097,176 page views. His biography is available in 63 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 59 in 2019). Dashiell Hammett is the 880th most popular writer (down from 698th in 2019), the 968th most popular biography from United States (down from 781st in 2019) and the 90th most popular American Writer.

Dashiell Hammett is most famous for his detective novels such as "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man."

Memorability Metrics

2.1M
Page Views (PV)
62.81
Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
63
Languages Editions (L)
4.66
Effective Languages (L*)
5.07
Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The Maltese falcon

1929

Red harvest

1929

The Continental Op

Fiction

Short, thick-bodied, mulishly stubborn, and indifferent to pain, Dashiell Hammett's Continetal Op was the prototype for generations of tough-guy detectives. In these stories the Op unravels a murder with too many clues, looks for a girl with eyes the color of shadows on polished silver, and tangles with a crooked-eared gunman called the Whosis Kid.

19744 / 5

The thin man

1934

Arson Plus Illustrated

2021

The Maltese Falcon

Fiction, mystery & detective, general, San francisco (calif.), fiction, California, fiction

Classic noir. Private detective Sam Spade is hired to search for a valuable, gem-encrusted antique in the shape of a falcon. Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderley to track down her sister, who has eloped with a louse called Floyd Thursby. But Miss Wonderley is in fact the beautiful and treacherous Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and when Spade's partner Miles Archer is shot while on Thursby's trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the jewel-encrusted bird, a treasure worth killing for, before the Fat Man finds him?

1929

The Dain curse

Private investigators, Open Library Staff Picks, Fiction in English

The Continental Op is a short, squat, and utterly unsentimental tank of a private detective. Miss Gabrielle Dain Leggett is young, wealthy, and a devotee of morphine and religious cults. She has an unfortunate effect on the people around her: they have a habit of dying violently. Is Gabrielle the victim of a family curse? Or is the truth about her weirder and infinitely more dangerous? The Dain Curse is one of the Continental Op's most bizarre cases, and a tautly crafted masterpiece of suspense.

1929

The thin man

Fiction, Private investigators, Nick Charles (Fictitious character)

Nick and Nora Charles are Hammett's most enchanting creations, a rich, glamorous couple who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. At once knowing and unabashedly romantic, The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.

1934

The Glass Key

Politicians, Fiction, FICTION

1931

Red harvest

Fiction, Private investigators, Continental Op (Fictitious character)

When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty--even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.

1929