Autograph Letter Signed by Hammett, Dashiell - 1945

Writing on New York Chapter of the League of Amercan Writers letterhead, Norman Corwin’s support was sought for educational programs in the South.

Hammett writes to Army buddy "Gottlieb...your go sounds like a good one, but I don't think I'd trade places with you. All the good goes aren't in the States. For instance, I'm now running a post daily newspaper and make my own hours, which means I usually choose to work at night, and we have an eleven p.m. mess for night workers. And then again it's more than six months since I have (1) answered a rollcall...(2) been in a formation...(3) taken a step as in marching of any kind, (4) tied a necktie around my neck, (5) shined a shoe, (6) had anything inspected, (7) had a crease in any of my clothes, (8) had to bother about whether I was in uniform - we wear whatever we like...(9) paid more than a nickel for a pack of cigarettes, (10) had to look at anybody policing an area, (11) had a lights-out time, (12) had to make a bed...(13) had to bother about how my clothes were hung or what was piled on my shelf or on the floor around my bed, (14) -- but that ought to be enough to give you the idea. We salute… Read More

To Prudence Whitfield, wife of Raoul Whitfield, a fellow "Black Mask" writer and one of Hammett's closest friends. Hammett and Prudence (Pru) shared a wealth of correspondence and many are written, signed or addressed in a manner that feed the speculation that they were lovers, even while he was in a relationship with Lillian Hellman. Our letter is addressed to "Pru darling" and signed, "Much love, sweetheart..." with initials "SDH." Hammett talks about the letters he had received from her, of which there were many. She apparently wrote daily at that time. He also talks about it being winter in Alaska, saying, "We're a pretty white world." He comments on life in the Army and about writing. "Of my own affairs in the Army there isn't a single God-damned bit of news," but notes that "sitting here at ease in my newspaper hut, putting on a little weight and practically bloated with health, I've no trouble being phlegmatic about it all. This is by no means the worst way of fighting a war that any enlisted… Read More

1944. One page, 8 1/2 x 11 in Fine condition with envelope. On "Yank" Alaska edition letterhead. Writing to an Army friend in Detroit "Don't let this paper fool you....It only means I'm using Yank's office tonight and I'm going to stop it and take my trade elsewhere if they don't put darker ribbons in their typewriters....Last week I wound up on a four-month--some ten thousand miles in all--romp....Anything you want to know about Alaska and the Aleutians, just ask me. Yes, the Eskimo girls at Nome are often very pretty, usually very good-natured and practically always very diseased. No, there's no sense in trying to rig up a sea otter poaching racket on Amchitka, because, while you could angle it OK there, you couldn't peddle the skins anywere except, perhaps, in the London black market. Yes, Kodiak is a little gem, whether you want to shoot, fish, drink or futz around with dames...." Hammett continues for another paragraph with discussion of his future travel plans, closing "I'm going to...get… Read More

Aleutians: 1 page, quarto, March 11, 1945. Written while a soldier in World War II to Prudence Whitfield, wife of fellow Black Mask writer Raoul Whitfield, and Hammett’s mistress. A remarkable letter in which Hammett responds to a statement that Joseph Shaw, his editor at Black Mask magazine in which he published his greatest work, to the effect that Hammett would never write again. “...I don’t remember having told Joe Shaw I’d never write fiction again. It sounds like one of the things people say now and then, offhand or to make a point, so I won’t say I didn’t. All I can say is if I did it just shows what kind of liar I can be, since I’m deep in notions - they’re still too hazy to be called ideas - for a novel I’ll do this spring and summer if I stay on the island...” Hammett is involved in army life “...I spent Thursday on the rifle range, didn’t finish my firing, and will go out again as soon as the weather and the range schedule permit. I had -- as I usually do on that -… Read More

Aleutians: 2 pages, quarto, December 21, 1943. Written while a soldier in World War II to Prudence Whitfield, wife of fellow Black Mask writer Raoul Whitfield, and Hammett’s mistress. Written in pencil on two sheets on lined paper, this is rare fully autograph letter as most of his letters are typed. “Errol Flynn and Martha O’Driscoll were up here earlier in the month for a few days of personal appearances. I saw them, but not their show, never having been a great goer in for neighborhood theater stuff....I had a letter from Raoul [Whitfield] when he returned from his Hollywood visit and he seemed fairly cheerful...I’ve been more or less in retirement for the world - no, not in the guardhouse - for a for a few weeks, which why I have written before this, Just at the moment I’m half-smothered under details connected with a new job...Winter is very much among ups and it’s nice have snow and ice underfoot instead of mud, and snow, and even sleet, in the air is in many ways better than… Read More