Talk:Dashiell Hammett/Archives/2014

Unpublished Stories
Please restore the list of unpublished stories, as ClueBot deleted them, and the info should be in the article. It also deleted two added stories which appear in "Nightmare Town"(1999) but had been left off the list. 76.102.148.112 (talk) 06:57, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

Corkscrew
How come there aren't any references to his short story Corkscrew in here? Or did I miss them. --Gwib (talk) 14:10, 25 May 2008 (UTC)


 * I named that story, in a section on the many "novelty" stories Hammett published, just for the money,  before his first novels took off.  That is, stories that rely for their impact on some unusual setting, or circumstance, in the story, or in the ending.  That section however was removed by some one more interested in decorum than truth.


 * In "Corkscrew", as I recall, Hammett's Continental Op becomes a Western sheriff, and cleans up a frontier town single-handedly, using the same methods he used to cleanup "Poisonville" MT in the novel "Red Harvest".


 * In "The Man who shot Dan Odom", the eponymous shooter lies wounded dying in a hillbilly shack, recalling the facts of the case, until in his final reflections, he realizes that the woman who hid him out after the shooting is also the loving wife of the late Dan Odom, the very one who turned him in to be shot. The shooter mutters "Good Girl" approvingly and breathes his last.


 * There are a lot of these and most are to be found in the late Hammett collection "Nightmare Town". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.70.208.101 (talk) 20:52, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Also, the reference to the "Gutting" story gives away the ending. *Never* do that when discussing a detective story.76.102.148.112 (talk) 03:26, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

Imprisonment and the blacklist
The section titled Imprisonment and the blacklist neglects to address either how long and where he was in prison or if he was blacklisted. Nitpyck (talk) 07:21, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

I have changed the paragraph about the blacklist, and removed the McCarthy reference. He testified before HUAC, NOT McCarthy's committee. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.18.21.53 (talk) 21:18, 28 September 2013 (UTC)

More correctly known as HCUAA. HUAC (House Un-American Committee) was what its enemies called it. Worth noting that McCarthy, as a Senator, would not have been on a House committee, thanks for the correction.76.102.148.112 (talk) 03:31, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics
I have removed this category, as there is no indication in the article that this is so. In fact, the word "alcoholic" never appears in the article once. ---  RepublicanJacobite  The'FortyFive' 15:07, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

OK, did he ever call himself an alcoholic in his letters, or are there any memoirs by those who knew him recording such a statement? If so, it can go back in, with the source added to the article. 76.102.148.112 (talk) 03:34, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

Night Shade
Yes, I know, Wikipedia pages are not for general discussion, so apologies. But I have just read "Night Shade", mentioned on the main page, which is one of the short stories he published under an assumed name. It is a real gem of a [very] short story and although by today's standards it is not only politically incorrect but practically racist, it is a really neat observation on human nature, disguised as a "tough guy" detective-type story. So have a read before this paragraph gets (correctly) removed! Partnerfrance (talk) 13:28, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

The chars have their attitudes, but I don't think they were Hammet's. Lit works which feature racism are not necessarily racist. Look at Langston Hughes' poem, "Ku Klux".

There might be a place for this in the article. Hammett was quizzed on this story by HCUAA in the early '50's, and whether it reflected "the Party Line". Room for research here. 76.102.148.112 (talk) 03:39, 21 December 2014 (UTC)