success as screenwriter in, 129–130, 147
Watch on the Rhine, success of, 164–165
Jewish identity, 95, 146
and lesbianism, 94–95, 120–121
men involved with
Herman Shumlin, 121–122, 124, 133, 138, 139, 166
John Melby (second secretary to embassy in Russia), 167–168, 169, 170
Pep (Nathanael) West, 108
Peter Feibleman, 155, 158
Ralph Ingersoll, 136, 138
names of, xxi
passionate personality, 140
physical appearance, and lack of beauty, 89–90, 93
plays and screenplays. See also The Children’s Hour (Hellman)
Another Part of the Forest, 137, 173, 175
The Autumn Garden, 181–182
Days to Come, 130, 138, 139–140
Dead End (Kingsley), 147
The Little Foxes, 149, 151–152
The North Star, 164
These Three, film version of The Children’s Hour, 132, 136
Toys in the Attic, 137, 200
Watch on the Rhine, 155, 156, 164–165
political activism
career blacklisted due to, 188
Communist Party, involvement in, 145, 146–147
and dangers of being a “known Red,” 179
documentary in Spain, 146
encouraged by Hammett, 179
financial difficulties forcing sale of Hardscrabble, 189
during Hammett’s army absence, 162
letter by, defending her own conscience, 194
subpoenaed by HUAC, 193–194
psychiatric help sought by, to cope with overwhelming success, 152–153
relationship with Mary and Jo Hammett, 98–99, 100, 106, 134–135, 156, 176–177, 180
writing. See also Children’s Hour, The (Hellman)
on being a Jewish writer, 146
collaboration with Hammett on screenplay for Watch on the Rhine, 156–157
gives credit to Hammett for The Autumn Garden speech, 181–182
Hammett as inspiration for, 155, 181
mentored by Hammett, 107, 115, 119–120, 122, 151–152, 166–167, 173, 181–182, 200
Hellman, Max, 90–91, 93, 103, 134, 136, 175
Hemingway, Ernest, 64, 146
Hitler, Adolf, 113, 143, 144–145, 154
“Holiday” (1923), 48–49
Hollywood. See also Hammett, Dashiell; Hellman, Lillian
blacklists in, 188, 189
Communist Party in, 132–133, 145–146, 174
Jazz Singer, The (first sound motion picture, 1927), 65
Screen Writers Guild (SWG), 132
studio heads and employees’ unions, 133
writers’ salaries, 132
homosexuality (homoerotic feeling). See also Hammett, Dashiell: personality traits: male society, preference for; Hammett, Dashiell: sexual attitudes: homophobia of, and sense of masculinity
homophobia, 76
in The Glass Key, 83–85
in The Maltese Falcon, 76
Hoover, Herbert, 78, 97
“House in Turk Street, The” (1924), 48, 74
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), 145, 174, 175, 179, 188, 193
Huston, John, 78
I
Industrial Workers of the World (“Wobblies”), 20, 59
Ingersoll, Ralph, 136, 138, 146
J
James, Henry, 32, 74
Jazz Singer, The (first sound motion picture), 65
Jefferson School of Social Science, 170, 189
Johnson, Diane, 88, 158, 162, 185
Johnson, Nunnally, 127
Jolson, Al, 65
K
Kafka, Franz, 60
Kant, Immanuel, 13
Kaufman, Mary M., 184, 185, 186
Kelly, Alice, 24
Kingsley, Sidney, 147, 180, 181
Knopf, Alfred, 61, 65, 78, 127–128, 153
Knopf, Blanche, 61–64, 65, 71, 78, 80, 102, 127, 202
Kober, Arthur, xxi, 87, 96–97, 103–104, 124, 127, 133–136, 137, 147, 148, 149–150, 155, 185
Kober, Cathy, 178–179
Kober, Maggie (née Frohnknecht), 155, 162, 178–179, 180
L
Layman, Richard, 88
League of American Writers (LAW), 132, 146, 154–155
League of Nations, 143
lesbianism, 94–95, 120–121, 125
Lewis, Mildred, 124, 128–129
Little Foxes, The (Hellman), 149, 151–152
Little, Frank, 20, 59
Lovers Should Marry (Martin), 69
M
MacDonald, Ross, xvii
Maltese Falcon, The (1930)
accurate reflection of crime and corruption in America, 75–76
elements of borrowed from previous stories, 74
enduring fame of, xviii
favorable reviews of, 80–82
film version of, 78
and Hammett’s changing writing style, 72–73
Hammett’s defense of sexual parts in, to Block (Knopf editor), 72
homosexuality in, 76
nonfictional segment in, and Flitcraft (aka Charles Pierce), 76–77
philosophical views expressed in, 6, 76–77, 78
plot of, 73, 74–75
serialization of in Black Mask, 78
stream-of-consciousness style planned in writing of, 64
theme of “trust” in, 75
third-person narration in, 72–73
Mamoulian, Rouben, 86–87
Marling, William, 82
Marsh, Ngaio, 43
Marshall, Loyd, 177, 200
Martin, Nell, 53, 58, 69–70, 86
McCarthy, Joseph, xx, 194
Melby, John, 167–168, 169, 170
Mencken, H. L., 4–5, 37
Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), 87, 113, 114, 123, 127–128, 131, 147, 169
Milne, A. A., 43
Miss Lonelyhearts (West), 107
Mister Dynamite, 115
Mitchell, Arthur W., 144
Motion Picture Artists Committee, 146
Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, 132
Mussolini, Benito, 143
N
Nathan, George Jean, 37
Nazism, 113, 143
Neal, Patricia, 173–174, 180, 187
Nebel, L. F., 80–81
New Republic magazine, 64–65, 81
New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, 126
New York Evening Graphic, 82
New York Evening Post, 80
New York State American Youth for Democracy Convention, 174
New York Times, The, 69, 94, 101, 112, 125
New York Trilogy (Auster), 68
New York World, 80
New Yorker, The, 101
North Star, The (Hellman), 164
O
organized crime, 58. See also crime
Outlook and Independent, 64, 68, 81, 101
P
Packer, Alfred G., 111
Paramount, 86, 87, 101, 180, 181
Parker, Dorothy, 94, 101–102, 126, 129, 133, 148
“Parthian Shot, The” (1922), 37
Pearl Harbor, bombing of, 156
Peirce, Charles, 77
Penzler, Otto, 80
Perelman, Sid and Laura, 96, 123, 145
Phibrick, H. R., 126
Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency, xviii, 16–18, 32–33. See also Hammett, Dashiell
PM (political newspaper), 146
Poe, Edgar Allan, 43
Princeton University, 139
Prohibition, 57–58, 114
pulp magazines, 36
R
Rabinowitz, Victor, 186
Rae, Bruce, 101
Random House, 153
Rappe, Virginia, 33
Rauh, Joseph, 193–194
Red Harvest (1929)
e
pisodic structure of, 72
Paramount secures movie rights to, released as Roadhouse Nights, 65
plot of, 58–63
positive reviews of, 64–65
success of, 64
themes of, 14
Redbook, 112
Roadhouse Nights, 65
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 113–114, 144, 156
Roughead, William, 107
“Ruffian’s Wife” (1925), 50
Ryan, Sylvester, 184–185, 186
S
Samuels, Albert, 36, 51, 66
San Francisco Call-Bulletin, 126
Saturday Evening Post, 52
Saturday Review of Literature, 52, 53
Sayers, Dorothy, 43
Schaefer, “Gloomy Gus,” 34
Schulberg, Budd, 127
Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace, 179
“Scorched Face, The” (1925), 45, 66
Screen Writers Guild (SWG), 132
Searching Wind, The (Hellman), 166–167
Secret Agent X-9, 113
Seldes, Gilbert, 82
Selznick, David O., 86
sexual abuse, 94, 95, 134, 156, 175–177
Shane, Ted, 81
Shaw, Joseph, 52, 58, 64
Shepard, Alice, 108
Shubert, Lee, 121
Shumlin, Herman, 121–122, 124, 133, 152, 157, 166
Smith Act, 182
Spanish Earth, The (Hemingway), 146
St. Mary’s County, 12
Stein, Gertrude, 134
Sunset Magazine, 50
T
Teapot Dome Scandal, 57
“Tenth Clew, The” (1924), 48
These Three (film version of Hellman’s play The Children’s Hour), 132, 136
Thin Man, The (1934)
censorship of, 112
delay in writing of, 101, 102
divided criticism of, 111–112
escapist value of, in Depression era, 114
Hammett’s period of sobriety during writing of, 107–108
movie rights to, 113
nonfictional account of cannibalism within, 111
plot of, 109–110
sales and success of, 112–113
successful film version, 114
thematic differences to previous works, 108–109, 111
as witty spoof of Hammett and Hellman, 108
Thin Man Goes Home, The, 169
“This Little Pig” (1934), 115
Town and Country, 81
Toys in the Attic (Hellman), 137, 200
Treaty of Versailles, 144
Tulip, xix, 25, 31, 195–198, 200
U
“Un-American House Committee” (aka House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC), 174, 175, 179, 188
University of Texas, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, 18
V
Van Dine, S. S., 43
Veterans Administration, 200, 202
Veterans Bureau, 35, 36, 51
Vetterli, R. E., 126
W
Warner Brothers, 65, 78, 86, 100–101
Washington Daily News, 199
Watch on the Rhine (Hellman), 155, 156, 164–165
Weidman, Jerome, 167, 185
Well of Loneliness, The (Hall), 121
West, Pep (Nathanael), 107, 108
Whitey, Snohomish, 30–31
Whitfield, Pru, 139
Whitfield, Raoul, 139
Williams, Tennessee, 152
Wilson, Woodrow, 3
Winchell, Walter, 125
Wings of the Dove, The (James), 74
Woman in the Dark, 107
“Women Are a Lot of Fun Too” (undated), 29–30
Woollcott, Alexander, 81
World War I, 3–4, 143
World War II, 154, 155–156
Wright, James, 17–18
Z
Zanuck, Darryl, 88, 100–101
“Zigzags of Treachery” (1924), 44
Zilboorg, Gregory, 153, 177, 185