The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom
Humanities Research Center
Hammett, Dashiell,
1894-1961
Dashiell Hammett
Papers
1923-1974
2 boxes (.84
linear feet)
The papers of Dashiell
Hammett include drafts of short stories, several unpublished and some
incomplete, along with drafts of
The Thin Man, the film version of
Watch on the Rhine, and the unfinished
novels, The Secret Emperor and Tulip. The collection also includes personal
correspondence, along with a small group of miscellaneous notes.
English.
TXRC 06-A0
Biographical Sketch
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland on May
27, 1894 to a family long in the county. After working as a youth to help
support his family, he left home in 1914 and worked as a detective before
enlisting in the U.S. Army during World War I. His contraction of influenza in
1918 led to tuberculosis, for which Hammett was treated in military hospitals
on the west coast.
In one of these hospitals he met and married a nurse, Josephine (Jose)
Dolan. Following his discharge in 1921 they moved to San Francisco, where he
found work as an advertising copy writer. Soon he began writing fiction for
publication, quickly gaining a following for his gritty detective writing in
Black Mask magazine. Due to a relapse of
tuberculosis, Hammett began living apart from his wife and two children, but
continued with his increasingly well-received writing career.
In 1930 Knopf published Hammett's
The Maltese Falcon, and his fame as an
American author was made. He met Lillian Hellman in 1931, and though both were
married at the time, they began a relationship that lasted until Hammett's
death. His
The Thin Man (1934) is in some sense a
roman à clef based on their life together. Following the publication of
The Thin Man Hammett's literary production
essentially ceased, for reasons still debated.
In the years between 1935 and 1941 Hammett's life was marked by
creative false starts, leftist activism, and increasingly severe alcohol abuse.
After Pearl Harbor, however, he enlisted in the army and served for most of the
war years in Alaska, a time that is generally regarded as one of personal
contentment for Hammett, even though his literary work was limited to editing a
serviceman's newspaper in the Aleutians.
Upon his discharge from military service in 1945 Hammett returned to
New York, where his attempts at resuming a writing career were hampered by
political persecution, poor health, and his drinking problem. Following a
prison term in 1951 for refusing to answer questions posed by the congressional
House Committee on Un-American Activities he lived a retired life, supported by
Lillian Hellman and other friends. Dashiell Hammett died at New York's Lenox
Hill Hospital on January 10, 1961.
Sources:
Hammett, Jo.
Dashiell Hammett: a Daughter Remembers.
New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001.
Johnson, Diane.
Dashiell Hammett, a Life. New York: Random
House, 1983.
Layman, Richard, ed.
Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett.
Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 2001.
Index Terms
People
Hellman, Lillian, 1906-
.
Kober, Margaret
Frohnknecht, 1913-1951.
Document Types
Photocopies.
Subjects
Novelists, American--20th
century--Biography.
Scope and Contents
The papers of Dashiell Hammett include manuscripts and personal
correspondence, along with a small group of miscellaneous notes. The material
dates from the years 1923 to 1974 and has been arranged into two series, I.
Works and II. Correspondence.
Included among the manuscripts comprising Series I. are numerous
drafts of short stories written between 1923 and the early 1930s, several of
which remain unpublished. The Secret Emperor, an unfinished novel present in
the series, is written on the versos of discarded manuscript pages of a number
of Hammett's short stories. Accompanying The Secret Emperor are plot summaries
and descriptions of characters. Tulip, another unfinished novel, dates from
about 1952 and is the author's latest known surviving literary effort.
Hammett's 1942 manuscript for the film version of Lillian Hellman's
Watch on the Rhine is to be found here; it
is the draft which was subsequently revised by Hellman for the 1943 film
production.
Also present in the series is
The Continental Op, a 1974 short story
collection edited by Steven Marcus which does not duplicate the contents of the
1945 collection of the same title. The drafts present in the Hammett papers
comprise typescripts of Marcus' introduction along with photocopies of pages
from earlier published editions of the stories. Galleys and page proofs of this
1974 collection are located in the Lillian Hellman Papers.
Series II. consists, in the main, of letters Hammett wrote to Lillian
Hellman between 1935 and 1958 and to Margaret Frohnknecht Kober in the years
1942 to 1951. Many of these letters were written during Hammett's wartime
service in Alaska as an enlisted man in the U.S. Army and detail his
experiences in and observations of that remote theater of operations. Other
letters, some of which are present in facsimile, are addressed to Kermit
Bloomgarden, Nancy Bragdon, Jo Hammett, and Herman Shumlin. Carbons of letters
to
Black Mask and
The Forum, both from 1925 or 1926, were
recycled by Hammett in typing The Secret Emperor.
Acquisition:
Gifts and purchase, 1967-1975 (R3521)
Access:
Open for research
Processed by:
Bob Taylor, 2006
Other collections in the Ransom Center holding materials relating to
Dashiell Hammett include those of Diane Johnson and Lillian Hellman. Ms.
Johnson's papers include materials collected for her
Dashiell Hammett, a Life, and the Hellman
papers include letters written her by Hammett as well as documents related to
her acquisition of Hammett's literary estate. Other Hammett correspondence is
located in the Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Records and the Ross Russell Papers.
Dashiell Hammett Papers--Folder List
Series I. Works,
1923-1974
1
1
A-H
Continental Op
1
2
Photocopy
1
3-4
Setting copy
1
5
I
1
6
K-R
1
7
S-Sep
2
1
Sev-Tim
2
2
The Sign of the Potent Pills
2
3-4
The Thin Man, carbon typescript
setting copy
2
5
Tulip (novel fragment)
2
6
Two-W
2
7-8
Watch on the Rhine, handwritten
manuscript
2
9
Untitled
2
10
Miscellaneous notes, including underworld
jargon
Series II. Correspondence,
1935-1958
2
11
B-S
2
12
Hellman, Lillian, 1935-1958
2
13
Kober, Maggie, 1942-51
Dashiell Hammett Papers--Index of Works
-
Action and the Quiz Kid--1.1
-
Bodies Piled Up--see Including
Murder
-
The Boundaries of Science and
Philosophy--1.1
-
The Breech-born--1.1
-
City Streets--see
The Kiss-off
-
The Continental Op (Random House,
1974)--1.2-4
-
The Creeping Siamese
[fragments]--see
The Secret Emperor
-
The Croaker--1.1
-
The Darkened Face. Part one: The Unlocked
Door--1.1
-
Dead Yellow Women
[fragments]--see
The Secret Emperor
-
December First--1.1
-
Devil's Playground--1.1
-
Dynamite Carson [untitled]--2.9
-
Faith--1.1
-
Fragments of Justice--1.1
-
The Gatewood Caper--see
Including Murder
-
The Golden Horseshoe--see
Including Murder
-
The Good Meal: a Play in Three Acts--1.1
-
The Gutting of Couffignal [fragments]--see
The Secret Emperor
-
The Hunter--1.1
-
An Inch and a Half of Glory--1.5
-
Including Murder: Bodies Piled Up--1.5
-
Including Murder: The Gatewood Caper--1.5
-
Including Murder: The Golden Horseshoe--1.5
-
Including Murder: Night Shots--1.5
-
Including Murder: Women, Politics and
Murder--1.5
-
Itchy--1.5
-
The Kiss-off [film treatment for
City Streets]--1.6
-
The Lovely Strangers--1.6
-
Magic--1.6; see also
The Secret Emperor
-
A Man Named Thin--1.6
-
Monk and Johnny Fox--1.6
-
The Murderer Who Thought Twice--1.6
-
Nelson Redline [untitled]--2.9
-
Night Shots--see
Including Murder
- [Review of]
Desperate Men by James D.
Horan--1.6
-
The Secret Emperor--1.7
-
September 20, 1938--1.7
-
Seven Pages--2.1
-
The Sign of the Potent Pills--2.2
-
So I Shot Him [untitled]--2.9
-
They Can Only Hang You
Once--2.1
-
They Die Too--2.1
-
The Thin Man--2.3-4
-
This Little Pig--2.1
-
Three Dimes--2.1
-
A Throne for the Worm--2.1
-
Time to Die--2.1
-
Tulip--2.5
-
Two Sharp Knives--2.6
-
[Two Sharp Knives] <emph render="doublequote">To a Sharp
Knife</emph>--2.6
-
The Ungallant--2.6
-
The Unlocked Door--see
The Darkened Face
-
Watch on the Rhine--2.7-8
-
Week-end--2.6
-
Women Are a Lot of Fun Too--2.6
-
Women, Politics and Murder--see
Including Murder