Comprises: 23 total letters by Hammett on 23 total pages (two are autograph letters signed and twenty-one are typed letters signed), from October 16, 1949 to January 29, 1952. Written to his new secretary Muriel Alexander, these letters have excellent content and he discusses his work in Hollywood, including a screenplay for Paramount and Sidney Kingsley’s “Detective Story.” Most 11x8½, one Als on 2¾x3½" card with envelope (pencil date 9/9/50), apparently for Alexander only stating: “Wishing you both the greatest amount of happiness that won’t interfere with your usefulness – Dash.” 12 on Beverly Wilshire letterhead; 7 on Paramount Pictures letterhead (including 1 Als dated Jan. 16, 1950); 1 on Hammett’s New York West St. address letterhead; and 3 with no letterhead. Also, includes 38 original carbon-copy typed letters by Alexander to Hammett containing interesting content, from 1950-51, 11x8½. Nearly all of Hammett’s letters are signed “Dash”; one signed with his initials and one signed in full. A few with holographic corrections and/or short marginal notes by Hammett.
Important archive of correspondence written just prior to Hammett being sent to jail and blacklisted during the House Committee on Un-American Activities trials. The first letter in this impressive collection and presumably Hammett’s first letter to Muriel Alexander, written from New York, October 16, 1949, he offers her the job as his secretary. The next 16 letters (Jan. 14 to Feb. 1950) are written from Hollywood. At the time, Hammett had been hired by Paramount to adapt Sidney Kingsley’s Detective Story for the big screen. Of Kingsley, Hammett writes in Jan. 22 letter: “It is my firm conviction that Sidney Kingsley is a lame-brain.” In the same letter, of a dinner at William Wyler’s house (the director of the film), he complains that the soup was made of rejection scripts. Of his own work on Detective Story, Hammett admits in several of the letters that the work is proving difficult, confessing that he’d rather spend time at the racetrack. In the Jan. 27 letter he theorizes that the reason he is having trouble working on it is because “I’m stubborn about not liking crime.” Regardless of his troubles, Hammett seems to live a lavish lifestyle in Hollywood, attending parties, changing his hotel room to a better suite and making appearances at movie premieres. Writing about the Sunset Boulevard premier, he writes: “It was stinkeroo, I though, thought I told [Gloria Swanson] she was wonderful in it.” These letters also reveal other projects, such as having Muriel send personal items, his financial expenses, and mentioning various friends (including Lillian Hellman). There is also much discussion of the Jefferson School of Social Science, where Hammett taught creative writing and Alexander attended classes (including ones on Marxism and other “subversive” topics – Alexander jokes in one letter to Hammett by referring to Jefferson as “Communist U.”). Hammett stayed in Hollywood until June 1950, apparently leaving the work on Detective Story unfinished. When the movie premiered the following year, Hammett received no credit mention. The only letter in this collection from 1951 (May 20), written just a few weeks before refusing to testify at the trial of four accused Communists and being sent to jail for six months, he writes: “The trial’s dragging a little just now and looks as if it might go well into next week…”. Several days prior, Alexander had written to Hammett about the trial, attesting to their close relationship: “I say a quiet little prayer for you and your day-in-court every hour on the hour. If there were anything more concrete and material that I could do, I’d feel much happier about it.”