Dashiell Hammett

Hammett joined the Pinkerton detective agency in 1915, working as a clerk and operative before illness and wartime service interrupted that career. Published fiction followed in the early 1920s, eventually producing The Maltese Falcon. Casework and spare report-writing gave the second profession usable material, although the novels are inventions rather than disguised case files. Follow him for the transformation of professional observation into a distinctive literary voice.