Dashiell Hammett Critical Essay | James Naremore

James Naremore

SOURCE: "Dashiell Hammett and the Poetics of Hard-Boiled Detection," in Art in Crime Writing: Essays on Detective Fiction, edited by Bernard Benstock, St. Martin's, 1983, pp. 49-72.

Hammett Responding to the Rejection of Two Continental Op Stories by Black Mask:

The trouble is that this sleuth of mine has degenerated into a meal-ticket. I liked him at first and used to enjoy putting him through his tricks; but recently I've fallen into the habit of bringing him out and running him around whenever the landlord, or the butcher, or the grocer shows signs of nervousness.

There are men who can write like that, but I am not one of them. If I stick to the stuff that I want to write—the stuff I enjoy writing—I can make a go of it, but when I try to grind out a yarn because I think there is a market for it, then I flop.

Whenever, from now on, I get hold of a story that...
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