Dashiell Hammett Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Ross Macdonald

Critical Essay by Ross Macdonald

SOURCE: "Homage to Dashiell Hammett," in Mystery Writers' Annual, April, 1964, pp. 8, 24.

Macdonald, a highly regarded author in the crime fiction genre, was the author of numerous books, including a series of novels featuring private investigator Lew Archer. In the following excerpt, he notes some minor shortcomings of Hammett's fiction, but praises him as an effective and innovative writer.

I have been given some space to speak for the hard-boiled school of mystery writing. Let me use it to dwell for a bit on the work of Dashiell Hammett. He was the great innovator who invented the hard-boiled detective novel and used it to express and master the undercurrent of inchoate violence that runs through so much of American life.

In certain ways, it must be admitted, Hammett's heroes are reminiscent of unreconstructed Darwinian man; McTeague and The Sea Wolfstand directly behind them. But no matter how rough...
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