The Maltese Falcon :: essays research papers fc

Dashiell Hammetts San FranciscoA Unique Setting in the changing World of Early 20th Century Detective FictionThe Pacific coast port city of San Francisco, California provides a distinctively mysterious ground in Dashiell Hammetts The Maltese Falcon. Unlike many other detective stories that are anchored in well-known metropolises such as Los Angeles or New York City, Hammett opted to betoken the events of his text in the lesser-known, yet similarly exotic heathenish confines of San Francisco. Hammett used his own intricate knowledge of the San Francisco Bay Area - coupled with elaborate collected during a stint as a detective for the now defunct Pinkerton Agency - to craft a distinctive brand of detective metaphor that thrived on such an original setting (Paul 93). By examining the setting of 1920s San Francisco in The Maltese Falcon, it becomes apparent that one of Hammetts literary strengths was his exceptional mightiness to intertwine non-fictional places with a fictional darn and characters in order to produce a logical and exceedingly believable detective mystery.Dashiell Hammett called the San Francisco area home from 1920 until 1936. For a portion of those fourteen years, he shared an apartment on Eddy Street with his first wife Josephine Dolan. This apartment was located very near the San Francisco exis cardinalce Library on Larkin Street where in 1921 Hammett first conceived the idea of his writing detective fiction. San Francisco historian and author Don Freeman explains In the library he would read the magazines and the books and one day after reading several detective yarns he said, I can do that. The truth is, he could. And he did. He wrote for Black Mask, a pulp detective magazine, and then as his skills increased he began to write novels. It was in this library that Dashiell Hammett saw his future. (79)Hammett contributed stories to Black Mask for ten years until The Maltese Falcon gained public and literary acclaim. Many of the stories that Hammett penned for Black Mask were set in San Francisco, as the city provided him with a unique atmosphere in which to observe and record different cultures, norms, and fads. In the 1920s, San Francisco was thought of as an exotic melting pot of culture that was rivaled only by its eastern cultural counterpart of New York City. Therefore, it is no surprise that Hammett used San Francisco as the setting of The Maltese Falcon to further illustrate the exotic and striking nature of the plot and characters within the text (Dumenil 211).