366
STEVEN MARCUS
for the troops. He apparently thoroughly enjoyed his tour of duty in
the Army, and became a legendary character among his much younger
fellow soldiers. When .he was discharged from the Army in 1945 he was
fifty-one, famous, and comparatively affluent. He had also developed
emphysema. The adaptation of ltis novels and characters to movies
and radio shows continued to bring in money, as did the steady sale of
his novels. Times were changing, but his political loyalties were not.
Neither were his drinking habits, which damaged and ravaged him
until they brought him down in 1948 with the dt's. From that time
forward he never drank .
The Cold War was now on, the period identified with Senator
Joseph McCarthy's name was taking shape, and many old scores were
beginning to be paid off. In one of the numerous legal cases that char–
acterized the period, Hammett was called to give evidence. He was
asked
to
name the contributors to a fund (of which he was a trustee)
that supplied bail for Communists and others who were brought to
trial (in this particular case, a number of persons on trial had jumped
bail and vanished). Hammett refused to testify, was found guilty of
contempt of court, and was sentenced
to
six months in jail. He spent
five months in various prisons and was then released. When he got out
of prison he was an exhausted and very ill man.
His external troubles were by no means over. The money, which
had once been so plentiful, was no longer there. H e was blacklisted in
Hollywood, and his radio shows had gone off the air. The government
sued him for back taxes, won a judgment of $140,000 against him, and
had his royalty, and all other, payments blocked. He took it all, as he
had taken all that had come before, stoically and without complaint.
He retired further into himself and lived a quiet and self-contained life
until 1956, when his illness and weakness made it impossible
to
live
alone. Thereafter he lived within the care and companionship of Lil–
lian Hellman. In 1960 his lung condition worsened and became can–
cerous . He died on January 10, 1961. By his own wish, he was buried in
Arlington National Cemetery. He had served the nation in two world
wars. He had also served it in other ways, which were his own.
II
I was first introduced to Dashiell Hammett by Humphrey Bogart.
I was twelve years old at the time, and mention the occasion because I
