Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett: 1921-1960

A selection from the letters of Dashiell Hammett, the American writer of crime fiction.

Here is Hammett the family man, distant but devoted; Hammett the student of politics, scanning the headlines from a Marxist perspective; and Hammett the lover of Lillian Hellman, delighting in her style, humour, accomplishments, but maintaining his independence. Celebrity, soldier, activist, survivor–these letters show how Hammett was each of these in turn, but was always, above all, a writer.