Listen to Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade short stories on line
with Windows Media Player
Don't forget: as you are listening to the old time radio shows, you can surf the web simultaneously. Kind of like watching and reading the news on CNN and chewing gum at the same time.
"I went about in a daze of love [for Spade] such as I had not known for any character in literature since I encountered Sir Launcelot"
Dorothy Parker (New Yorker, April 24, 1931)
STORIES:
The Gold Key Caper
The Death Bed Caper
The Dry Martini Caper
The Bouncing Betty Caper
The Hot Hundred Grand Caper
The Sugar Kane Caper
The Wheel Of Life Caper
The One Hour Caper
The Missing Newshawk Caper
The Mad Scientist Caper
The Lawless Caper
The S.Q.P. Caper
Subject Edith Hamilton
Dashiell Hammett - Creator of Sam Spade, The Thin Man, The Maltese Falcon, Red Harvest, The Glass Key
born 1894 - died 1961
Dashiell Hammett had actually worked as a detective
(Pinkerton Detective Agency) and is
credited with writing the first of the "hard boiled" detectives.
In addition to his novels, he wrote over 80 short stories. The radio
star of "The Adventures of Sam Spade" was Howard Duff. During the 1950's
both Duff and Hammett were accused of being communist. During a
Congressional inquiry, Dashiell Hammett refused to name others or cooperate in
any way with those he felt were anti-democratic and went to jail in 1951.
"When a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do
something about it. It doesn't matter any difference what you thought of
him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it."
- The Maltese Falcon
Hammett described a typical detective as "A little man going forward...through mud and blood and death and deceit - as callous and brutal as necessary."
Listen to Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe
