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| | Feature | Dashiell Hammett: Let's Talk About the Black Bird |
 | | Pegged as a crackerjack, Hammett worked the case of a stolen Ferris wheel, investigated con men and gathered evidence for the defense of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, a silent-movie fun-maker (famous for his pie-throwing buffoonery), who was accused in 1921 of raping and killing a 25-year-old actress at San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel. |
 | | Given the reputation Dashiell Hammett now enjoys as a writer of spare but powerful prose, his stories impressively infused with realism, irony and characters not conveniently separated into "good" or "evil," it's remarkable to recall that he produced only five novels (just two fewer than Chandler turned out over his career). |
 | | Of course, it helped that Hammett's stories were turned into movies, and that younger writers have championed his contributions to their own work. |
| www.januarymagazine.com /features/hammettintro.html (1852 words) |
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