(Samuel) Dashiell Hammett

Hammett, (Samuel) Dashiell (1894–1961), U.S. writer and left-wing political activist. He was known for his hard-boiled detective novels, and his character Sam Spade became one of the prototypes of the fictional U.S. detective. Hammett's best-known works are The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1932).