Steven Marcus
DASHIEll HAMMETT AND THE
CONTINENTAL OP
Dashiell Hammett-creator of such figures in the mythology
of American culture as the Continental Op, Sam Spade, and the Thin
Man-was born Samuel Dashiell Hammett, in St Mary's County,
Maryland, in May 1894. The family wa.s of Scottish and French extrac–
tion, and they were Catholic. Hammett's early years were spent in
Philadelphia and Baltimore, and his formal education was brought to
an end at the age of fourteen, when he left high school after less than a
year of attendance. His father's relative lack of success in the world
seems, at least in part,
to
be reflected in this decision.
For the next several years Hammett workedwith indifferent success
and even less interest at a number of odd jobs-on the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad, in factories, at stockbrokers, and as a casual laborer.
When he was about twenty, he answered an advertisement in a Balti–
more newspaper, and as a result found himself employed by Pinker–
ton's, the most famous of American private detective agencies. The
young man had found a vocation that engaged his liveliest interests.
The work was challenging, exciting, adventurous, dangerous, and hu–
morous.
It
took him around the country and into and out of a large
v'lriety of walks of life, classes of society, and social and dramatic situa–
tions. These experiences were formative; their influence in his educa–
tion as a writer can hardly be overestimated.
In 1918 he enlisted in the Ambulance Corps of the United States
Army and was stationed near Baltimore. During his year of military
