Dashiell Hammett maybe the first author of noir and he is one of the greatest. I have found his personal life fascinating. I’ve seen a few documentaries and have read many articles about his history with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, The Anaconda Company and his time in Butte, Montana. I live in this area and if you read Red Harvest and know Butte, you will recognize that the fictional Poisonville is Butte. Anyway, here is a an article in The Washington Post by Art Taylor about what maybe legend and myth and what is fact about Hammett. It also talks about the Nathan Ward book about Hammett. Check out the full article here:
everythingnoir 