The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett - LSC Kingwood

 Assignment Guide

Dashiell Hammett, together with Raymond Chandler, were two of the founders of the style of detective known as hard-boiled. The hardboiled detective novel was the first truly American novel.  Its sources come directly from the streets of the big cities of the 1920s and 1930s.  This is one of the reasons these books have stayed popular for nearly 100 years. Hammett had been a Pinkerton detective and brought his real knowledge of this type of work to the stories. This realism and grit helped create a style which has been copied and recreated in novels, films and television since Hammett's novels first appeared.

The Maltese Falcon was first published in the Black Mask magazine as a five part serial from September, 1929 through January, 1930. Hammett dedicated the book to his wife, Jose, shortly before he moved from San Francisco to New York. Hammett's family moved to Los Angeles. Although the Hammetts did not divorce until 1937, they never lived together again. Hammett died in 1961.  He had tuberculosis, no money and much of his work was out of print in his own country.

Hammett's third novel, The Maltese Falcon, is called his best by many critics. It has been adapted for film several times.  The second adaptation, filmed in 1941 and starring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, is the best known. Demanding, attractive, amoral and sardonic, the detective, Sam Spade has been the model for many detectives, investigators, and seekers of truth. He keeps his thoughts to himself and watches closely to see how the people he must confront react to each other. This close observation allows him to decide what is real and what are the lies in what he has been told.

Begin here . . .

Librarian talk . . . About Getting Started! As you begin, narrow your topic to a size that you can manage. Consider keywords that will help you find the information you need. These can be names of people, literary works, events, or broader identifying terms. Use these keywords for locating information in the library catalog, electronic databases, and on the internet. Keywords to consider: honor; obsession; homosexuality; greed; pursuing a dream; cynicism; ethics in business; honor among thieves; obsession; corruption in law enforcement; deception; morality; noir; hard-boiled; Sam Spade; detective; private eye; private investigator  More about Choosing Keywords (30 sec.)

Main Characters

• Samuel Spade - A strong, somewhat unscrupulous, and very resourceful private eye or detective.
• Brigid O'Shaughnessy - Sam's client. She is a beautiful, unscrupulous liar. 
• Miles Archer -  Sam's partner. The story reveals his character through Sam's insight.
• Floyd Thursby - Although he is only briefly part of the storyline, he is the reason for some of Brigid's actions.
• Effie Perine - Sam's secretary.  A hardworking girl who seems devoted to Spade.
• Casper Gutman - A large fat man who seems to be the most cunning of the characters who are after the statue. 
• Wilmer Cook - A young gunman employed by Casper Gutman.
• Joel Cairo - One of the sleazy characters involved in the hunt for the Falcon.

In the background

• Sid Wise - Sam's attorney
• Luke - house detective at the Belvedere, Cairo's hotel
• Bryan - District Attorney
• Captain Jacobi - Skipper of the La Paloma
• Rhea Gutman - Casper's daughter
• Lieutenant Dundy and Tom Polhaus - two police detectives who know Spade and deal with him regularly

Sam Spade and Miles Archer have a detective agency in San Francisco.  References in the story to real news items from the San Francisco Call, allow readers to know that Sam and Miles are consulted in December, 1928.  The action takes place over a six day period from Wednesday to Monday.

Themes and topics to consider in your research

These suggestions will help you find information and begin the process of forming a thesis.  Use keywords as you search for articles in the databases.  This process will help you as you focus your ideas and firm up the thesis statement.  The articles you find will be useful resources to support the thesis in your paper.

• PI code of honor
• Law vs justice
• Honor among thieves
• The ability of the PI to enter different social worlds
• Greed
• Language used in the hard boiled novel
• Sam Spade's cynicism 
• Sam Spade's ethical character
• Sam as a misogynist 
• Point of view (Hammett uses third person allowing readers to have more information)
• Noir novels
• Hard-boiled crime novels

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Books

Librarian Talk . . .About Books! Apply online for a library card. Use the barcode number from your Lone Star College ID or library card to: 1) Place a Hold on a book and have it sent to the library closest to you 2) Access journal and reference databases from home, and 3) Access e-Books from Ebscohost. The catalog is online. Online or e-Books are available at  Ebscohost.  Use the barcode number from your Lone Star College ID or library card to log in from off-campus. More about...Finding Books (31 sec.)

Finding Scholarly articles in Databases

Librarian Talk . . . About Finding Journal and Newspaper Articles! Electronic databases are purchased by the libraries for your research use. To find articles in newspapers and journals, letters, reference books, illustrations, photographs and more, use your updated library card barcode number to login to the following databases. If you find an interesting article that is not full-text, please give the correct bibliographic information to our Reference Librarians and they will see that you get the article. They will need full bibliographic information - and your name and address. Send your phone number as well, so they can contact you if they need to. There is some overlap of articles in the following databases. However, we encourage you to use more than one. All are excellent sources for this topic.  HINT: For a full list of article databases, go to http://www.Lonestar.edu/Library/article-databases and use the barcode number from your Lone Star College ID or library card to login from off-campus. More about searching databases (25 sec.)

Project Muse  This scholarly database is completely full text (whole articles) and will provide many articles on Hammett, the Maltese Falcon, noir novels and Hard-boiled fiction.  Begin your search by entering the title of the novel in the search box in quotation marks.  Use the limiters on the left side of the screen to focus your searh to Journals, full access (complete articles), or research areas. You can Modify a search to add keywords from your thesis - click on the + mark to add search boxes.  This database is also entirely scholarly, so all articles will be of the appropriate academic level for your research.

JSTOR  A very large scholarly database with many full text articles.  Use the Advanced Search page for the best results. Limit your search to articles, and choose the discipline Language and Literature to focus the results.

Literature Resource Center   This literary database contains overviews of The Maltese Falcon, and Hammett's entire body of work, as well as information on noir novels and hard-boiled crime fiction.  Be aware that there are some sources in this database which are not complete or full text scholarly criticism.

Academic Search Complete   This multi-subject database contains scholarly journals and other sources on Hammett and his work.  Use the Advanced Search screen for the best results, and limit you search to scholarly, full text articles to find the best sources.

The History of the Mystery - How does The Maltese Falcon fit in?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) was the first to use science to track down criminals. Before this time, critical thinking and deductive reasoning alone solved crimes in mystery books. Knowing about poisons, blood splatters, ballistics, trace evidence and other forensic scientific methods added a new dimension to this genre. Edward Ricciuti states in Forensics: Science 101, "The popularity of forensics today reflects the reality that science has truly become integral to successful police work." Two interesting points should be made about the mystery novel. First, the accurate use of forensics, technology and inventions is important to the writing. Readers today want accuracy in their writing. Ready access to the Internet and other research resources make it easy to check facts and statistics. If an author today writes a mystery novel set at an earlier time, they better be sure the forensics they use were invented at that time. Using a lie detector before 1950 would elicit mounds of email to the publisher and author. The second point, is that what is happening in the world or the country deeply effects what people read. For example, books with spies as protagonists were popular during the fifties and sixties - in response to the red scare and organized crime. In today's fast moving - global economy, mysteries with international settings and ones actually written and translated from other languages are popular.

The English classic mystery made popular in England during the 1920s reflects the nostalgia people felt for the past. Times were changing too quickly; WWI ended, women were working in large numbers for the first time, and automobiles were largely responsible for ending the fortnight trips to country homes. So, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and others became hugely popular setting their mysteries in country estate mysteries where all suspects were gathered together and a 'little' (almost bloodless) murder happened. Red herrings, clues, and alibis were introduced to these puzzle mysteries. The elements included: fool the reader, yet play fair, amateur detective (Miss Marple), little murder often happening before the story began, enclosed setting, mystery always solved, and a morality play.

At the same time in America, prohibition, gangsters, growth in population from the industrial age, immigration, and other factors were changing the demographics large cities. Writers like Hammett, Raymond Chandler, John MacDonald, and Erle Stanley Garner created the detective mystery, using the Private Investigator as hero. The elements of these stories included: realism (all set in large cities), social issues, PI not afraid of committing crimes (even murder) to right the wrong he sees, jaundiced view of government, law VS justice, generate the smell of fear, and they were routed in the vernacular - living language of the streets.

Take a look at the chart below, and discover for yourself whether it proves my point about readers, genre, and the times.

Time	Mystery	Social History	Science/Technology Introduced in court	Publishing	Media
Pre1900	Foundations built - elements established by Edgar A. Poe, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	Civil War in America Class Struggle Monopolies | Robber Barons| Westward Movement| Immigration | Wild West	1776 Dental ID (Rev. War) 1804 Medico-legal Institute (U of Vienna) 1840-1870 mug shots, crime scene, post mortem photos 1837 Typewriter in use 1850 Pinkerton Agency 1882 first book on fingerprinting 1888 Machine gun 1870 document authenticity - handwriting 1845 New York Police Force	1860 Collins’ Woman in White 1860 Dime Novel – Escapist Novels 1872 Fireside Companion – Detective Novel Series in pulp magazines Sherlock Holmes - side kick, arch rival, outwitting the police Western pulp fiction - short stories, detective stories of 20s developed from these.
1900-20	Early Romantic Suspense (Had I But Known genre) Mary Roberts Rinehart wrote the earliest Romantic Suspense, following the 'bodice rippers' of the late 19th century.	Progressive / Populist Movements Ocean Liners- Recreation - Titanic Immigration | Industrial age had brought many to the city for jobs WWI 1920 18th Amendment- prevent alcohol Child labor Labor Unions Religious tent meetings - and - Vaudeville	FBI  Special Agents  Britain – Scotland Yard Wireless telegraph Scientific Crime lab at Berkeley Firearm ID Widespread use of Fingerprinting	1910 Pulp Magazines – Escapist Short Stories, 1915 Pulp Magazine – Detective Stories	1903 The Great Train Robbery - first full length film
1920-39 England	Golden Age of Mystery ENGLAND: Puzzle Classic	England – depression Nostalgia Amid Social Chaos End of fortnight country estate visits Anti-Social Struggle Communism, Nazism, Fascism Upper/Middle Class Books Lending (Two-Penny) Libraries Missing ‘the good old days’   "No one named Lefty has EVER appeared in an English classic mystery." ~Raymond Chandler	1910-1930 Automobiles became more affordable for all. Paperbacks available for everyone - more readers	1922 Mary Roberts Rinehart – Best Seller 1935 Paperback    Colliers & Others add Mystery Stories 1928  Detection Club (puzzle) 1929  S.S. Van Dine – Best Seller List number 1 Rebecca	Films – Agatha Christie and others
1920-39 America	AMERICA: Detective Novel Hard-Boiled Detective	Economic Depression Prohibition / Speakeasies Jazz Age Violent period of lawlessness Racism Harlem Renaissance Gangsters as heroes - Al Capone and others Language of gangsters in cities "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid... He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man ... He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world." ~Raymond Chandler	Ballistics  |  Tommy Gun  |  Wireless Photo Human Blood Groups Ballistics Aircraft Detecting Radar Paraffin tests – gun residue 1920 Firearms ID acceptance in trials Dental ID accepted in court Accident Reconstruction	Pulp Monthly “The Black Mask" 1915-1950 over 200 Mystery Detective pulps Circulation in 1924, Half A Million	Film Noir – 40s And 50s  Maltese Falcon, Big Sleep Radio  -  G-Men, Public Enemy – Sam Spade Movies – 90 Million Wkly Attendance (1930) 1931  Maltese Falcon 1935 Dick Tracy 1936 The Shadow, Gang Busters
1940	End Of Golden Age of Mysteries WWII -. Detective novel still popular. Classic puzzle, too, but no new genre during this time. Changing world. Radio was very popular and mysteries played weekly - including Sam Spade, which was wildly popular.	WWII Inflation Spy Trial – Alger Hiss Strikes Holocaust awareness Change Of World Order / Us & USSR Powers Class system changing after wars Women in workplace Communication revolution - radio, typewriter, travel, speed, planes,etc	Simplified Microscope Atomic Bomb DNA accepted as basic genetic material Jet Plane Transistor	Chester Himes – Black Mystery Author 1945 Mystery Writers of America (Edgar, Grand Master)	Radio Thriller / Drama / Mystery The Thin Man, Stella Dallas, Sam Spade
1950	Espionage My name is Bond, James Bond!	Red Scare – McCarthyism | Blacklisting | Communism Organized Crime grows Korean War |  Cold War  |  Conservative Politics	FBI Loyalty Checks H Bomb Poloroid Camera Communist Develop A-Bomb DNA – Double Helix Model Boeing 707 Jet First Atomic-Powered Submarine USSR Launches Sputnik NASA Organized Photofit  ID – London BAC – Blood Concentration in Alcohol Voice Comparisons Lie Detector	1953 Crime Writers Assn  (Gold and Silver Daggers) 1953 – 1967  Manhunt Magazine – Hard Boiled Pocket Books 1952 FBI Publishes Public Enemy List Bond!– James Bond! by Ian Fleming	Death Of The Pulp Magazines Perry Mason, Dragnet - Television
1960	Romantic Suspense Mary Roberts Rinehart wrote the earliest romantic suspense novel. They followed the 'gothic bodice rippers' of the latter 19th century.	Feminism, Hippies, Youth Power Vietnam Peace / Student Movement Racism / Integration Kennedy/King Assassinations Drug Use Increased Berlin Wall built	Space Program Laser, Digital Display (Calculators) Airplane Hi-Jacking (?) Telstar – Transatlantic TV Nuclear Reactor – Jersey Power Plant Microchips – Word Processors – no longer able to document type Man On Moon Interpol seminar on scientific aspects of police work Blood splatters  (predict events from splatters) Identi-Kit (visual likeness)		The Defenders The Man From U.N.C.L.E. The FBI The Avengers I Spy Ironside
1970	Espionage & Romantic Suspense continue - this was a very quiet time for the mystery novel.	Cold War Sexuality, Materialism Gas Shortages SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty)     Gold prices soared	Personal Computer Microchip Age Videotape as evidence in court  Voiceprint Lie detectors - polygraph - used in court	1970 Boucheron Committee (Anthony) Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, Frederick Forsyth,  Robert Ludlum	Macmillan and Wife Columbo Cannon Barnaby Jones Kojak Police Story Rockford Files Police Woman Baretta  S.W.A.T.
1980	2nd Golden Age Cozy (Classic) Cook, book collectors, and other hobbies for detectives Medical Thriller Legal Thriller Series were HUGE Detective lives become important to readers  (Kinsey Millhone)	White Collar Crime Drug Trafficking Law Suits Environment Issues	Evidence of ID – shoeware, etc. Highly trained detectives, Educated PIs DNA profiling tests announced	Second Golden Age of Mysteries 1981 Private Eye Writers Assn  (Shamus 1986 Sisters in Crime 1986 Int’l Association Crime Writers (Hammett) 15 books on Best Seller List – 7 are mysteries	Hill Street Blues
1990-Present	Thematic Cozy Tech/ Industrial Espionage Historical Mysteries Regional International  settings, translations of mysteries from foreign writers Conspiracy Terrorism	Immigration growth Gulf War – Iraq and Afghanistan Nostalgia strong in US Terrorism in the US Computer Fraud Corporate Espionage Mega-corporations Third World Global Economy                        Energy Crisis	Digital Cameras Cloning Advanced DNA, accepted in court Internet and other Technology Forensic software analysis College Courses in Forensics Sophisticated murder site forensics CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) Electronic Banking eReaders                                                social media	Mysteries have their own best seller list in the NYTimes  & other newspapers. Internet – author & publisher websites	Internet publishing & Marketing Reality Programs CSI, Espionage shows popular Legal Shows Police Shows         pw revised 2011

Internet

Librarian Talk . . . About the Internet! The Internet will be a wonderful source of original documents. Browse the sites we have suggested below. Remember, you do want to find reputable sites. Look at: Accuracy - The information should be researched and show proof that it has been. Source - Who wrote the information? Look at the domain. Most but not all .edu .gov. org .net are valid research sources. Authority - What are the author's credentials?  (Don't quote from another college freshman's paper.) Coverage - Does the page have the information you need for your research? Objectivity - If a work is biased, use it - just make sure your professor knows YOU know. And offer both sides of issues, where applicable. More about finding internet sources (25 sec.)

The internet can be a valuable resource for your paper.  Be aware that all web pages are not suitable for scholarly research. Consider the accuracy of the information, the source of the information, the credentials of the author, and the relevance of the information to your research. If you are in doubt, ask your instructor.  

Memoir by Lillian Hellman.  Hellman writes about the personal relationship she had with Hammett. This web site from the New York Review of Books is the introduction to the book of Hammett's short stories published by Random House in 1966

Guns, Gams and Gratitude January Magazine published this group of short reviews on Hammett's novel.  The reviews are by authors who also write hard-boiled crime fiction.

The Big Read  this website from the National Endowment for the Arts contains great information and overview of the novel.  It will help put the novel in historical context and offers some ideas for topics or themes.

The Crime Museum or the National Museum of Crime and Punishment Is a great place to see the history of forensic science and how the FBI solves cases.  Interactive exhibits like the Be a Crime Scene Investigator allow you to practice your skill as a forensic scientist.

The Spy Museum Not far from the White House in Washington D.C., is a very special museum devoted to intrigue in the international and political arenas.  Spies who dug for secrets weren't far from their earlier incarnation as detectives. 

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Librarian Talk about getting help! Support for a successful paper is more than finding the right resources. Putting it all together takes time and effort. Sometimes it takes additional help from the librarians or tutors. Please consider the following resources if you need additional help. Remember, the expert on the assignment is your professor; use your LSC Online in-class email to contact her. More about getting help (25 sec.)

Citing Sources Using MLA Style | Lone Star College-Kingwood Library guide. Examples of both paper and electronic citations.  

Avoiding Plagiarism  |   Excellent information and guide on how to avoid plagiarism from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University.

University of Texas Copyright Crash Course | This helpful guide on copyright is suggested by Lone Star College-Kingwood Teaching and Learning Center.

The Learning Center   |   Check the TLC hours for in-house tutoring.

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Page by Becky Bradley and Peggy Whitley, 12/2012

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