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.Richard Layman is the author of Shadow Man, the first full biography of Dashiell Hammett, and the vice president of Bruccoli Clark Layman, a publisher of reference works in literature. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina.

Julie M. Rivett is a granddaughter of Dashiell Hammett, and Josephine Hammett Marshall is his daughter. They live in Southern California.