Zócalo Public Square

We can be forgiven for thinking of Dashiell Hammett as a San Francisco writer. The Maltese Falcon takes place in Northern California, where Hammett somehow transformed himself from a tubercular detective for the Pinkerton Agency into a novelist for the ages. But Hammett’s roots in Los Angeles run deep. Here, in the 30s, he worked on several pictures while under contract to the studios. Here he began his lifelong affair with Lillian Hellman. And here he returned frequently over the years to visit his beloved daughters. Zócalo and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs brought together a panel of writers, family members, and scholars to culminate L.A.’s month-long celebration of this great California novelist. Among the mysteries discussed, if not solved: Why did Hammett fall creatively silent for the last three decades of his life? Why is there no movie version of ‘The Red Harvest’? How did he influence the L.A. Noir scene? And the ultimate, unanswerable question: Hammett or Chandler?