SOURCE: "Dashiell Hammett in the Wasteland," in The Midwest Quarterly, Vol. XIX, No. 2, Winter, 1978, pp. 196-202.

In the following essay, Morris notes similarities between the works of Hammett and those of several other writers who have depicted corruption in society.

Critics of the subgenre long ago recognized Dashiell Hammett's impact upon crime and detective fiction. Along with Raymond Chandler, who, coincidentally, wrote one of the first essays discussing this impact, Hammett was one of the giants who established an American voice and style that stood in opposition to the British-dominated country-house school. His criminals were habitual wrongdoers, not insane spinsters, vicars, or retired colonels. His detectives were hardworking professionals, not gentlemen amateurs solving murders for lack of a more edifying hobby. He wrote about killings committed with the weapons men routinely use for murder, not exotic poisons or knives made of ice. Most importantly, Hammett set his crimes...