The Falcon as a Symbol

The Maltese falcon really existed, if not in a form Hammett’s readers would recognize. It dates back to the Knights of Malta, a religious order founded as the Knights Hospitaller in the year 1080 to provide care for poor and sick pilgrims to Jerusalem. In 1530, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Spain gave the order a large territory, including Malta, in exchange for an annual fee of a single – live, not bejeweled – Maltese falcon. Even though it has no territory today, the order survives and is considered a sovereign state, with observer status at the United Nations.

Dashiell Hammett drew on the history of the Knights of Malta when creating the plot hook for The Maltese Falcon. He explained this historical influence by saying simply, “Somewhere I had read of the peculiar rental agreement between Charles V and the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem.” The Crusades probably intrigued Hammett because of their mythic association with the Holy Grail, the cup used by Jesus at the last supper. The association with the Crusades subtly elevates Sam Spade to a knight on a noble errand, a ploy that intensifies the quest and, considering how ignoble many of Hammett’s characters are, mocks it at the same time.

Falconry, the sport of using trained birds to hunt small prey, dates back thousands of years. Well- trained birds were prized for their beauty, skill, and practicality. A fearsome hunter, the falcon has long been a symbol of prowess and ruthlessness – not unlike Sam Spade, the detective who pursues it in Hammett’s novel. Early Christians borrowed pagan symbols like the falcon, but altered their meaning to reflect their own values. Because they are relentless hunters, wild falcons often symbolized evil, while tamed falcons represented Christian conversion and repentance. Coats of arms from the Middle Ages often included falcons as a symbol of a pursuer, one who will not rest until his objective is achieved. This single-minded imperviousness to distraction, too, can’t help reminding readers of Spade and his fellow falcon-hunters.

A valuable prize that everyone in a story is chasing, as with Hammett’s falcon, is sometimes called a “maguffin.” Film director Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term to describe the elusive objects that so many of his heroes and villains pursued. In each case, the nature of the object is less important than how much everyone wants it. In the book, greed destroys any hope the characters have for contented lives, yet they cannot give up the chase. They are driven by uncontrollable yearnings that eat away at their humanity and contaminate relationships. Reversing the lead-into-gold transformation familiar from alchemy, the Maltese falcon has been reduced from gold to lead, and down with it go the lives of all who vainly chase it.

Excerpt taken from the National Endowment for the Arts Reader’s Guide. For more insider information on The Maltese Falcon, click here.

Film Noir Fridays: Double Indemnity

Join us on Fridays throughout the Big Read program for special cinematic journeys through the shady underbelly of film noir. The series continues tomorrow night at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College with Double Indemnity.

Billy Wilder's classic 1944 film, a familiar brew of lust, larceny, and lethal intentions, stars Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck as a hot-blooded couple who become embroiled in murder. Framed in flashback, the story is told by the dying Walter Neff (MacMurray), beginning with his first meeting with the seductive Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) during a routine renewal of her husband's car insurance. Neff's obsession with Phyllis leads Neff to contemplate the possibility of finding a way to kill her husband while making his death look like an accident. Co-starring Edward G. Robinson as Neff's boss, Barton Keyes , an omniscient insurance investigator, Double Indemnity is brilliant noir, with an irresistible plot, stylized hard-boiled dialogue, and a classic femme fatale.



The film was inspired by a 1927 crime orchestrated by a married Queens woman and her lover. Ruth Snyder persuaded her boyfriend, Judd Gray, to kill her husband Albert after having her spouse take out a big insurance policy—with a double-indemnity clause. The murderers were quickly identified and arrested. The Snyder-Gray murders also inspired the films The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and Body Heat (1981).

Dr. Julio Rodriguez, Associate Professor of American Culture, will present a brief lecture prior to the screening and facilitate a discussion afterward. Dr. Rodriguez's scholarship on representations of masculinity in film and the film noir genre guarantee a discussion that you will not want to miss!

Just the Facts:
Date: January 29, 2010
Time: 8:00 pm
Location: Maier Museum of Art, Randolph College (map it!)
Cost: FREE

Not convinced? Check out the Tomatometer at Rotten Tomatoes to see what film critics and film lovers have to say!

Classic, before Bogart

Proudly and eloquently, Julie Rivett stands on the bridge between Dashiell Hammett and the rest of the world.

Hammett’s timeless detective story, “The Maltese Falcon,” is what Lynchburg will be reading this year as part of the nationwide Big Read project, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts. Every participating community chooses a communal book from a list of 75, and Rivett is visiting a number of those that picked Hammett.

“I’m very excited about the Big Read,” she said in a telephone conversation from Los Alamitos, Calif. “It’s hugely rewarding to help people see the book in the way that I see the book.”

Rivett will give a talk on her grandfather and his signature work at Lynchburg College’s Hall Campus Center on Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m.

“There’s a lot more to the ‘Maltese Falcon’ than Humphrey Bogart,” she said. “It really was a classic.”

Of course, she’s prejudiced. But then, in a way, she’s also the person best situated to evaluate Dashiell Hammett’s life and career with equal parts familiarity and objectivity.

Hammett died in 1961, and Rivett’s last contact with him came when she was 3 years old. Yet she grew up with stories about him from her mother, then edited more than 600 of his personal letters for a book.

To those who have seen the movie, released in 1941 and recycled endlessly ever since, the character of Sam Spade is most closely identified with Humphrey Bogart, his on-screen alter ego. As far as Rivett is concerned, however, there is more of Dashiell Hammett in Spade than anyone else.

“Oh, yes, you can really see it,” she said. “That’s one reason the book fascinates me so much.”

Unlike many crime writers, whose lives pale in comparison to those of their creations, Hammett was a fascinating character in his own right.

He worked for years as a private detective in San Francisco (grist for several of his novels) and served in two World Wars. He is also perhaps the only former member of the American Communist Party to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Blacklisted in the early 1950s for his former Communist activities, he was jailed for contempt of court after taking the Fifth Amendment at a Congressional hearing.

Throw in Hammett’s life-long struggle with tuberculosis and emphysema and alcohol, his much-publicized 30-year romance with playwright Lillian Hellman and his enigmatic personality, and it’s not surprising that the Maryland native seems to have stepped out of one of his books.

At the same time, however, Rivett grew up hearing of a man who loved children and animals, had a sly, dry sense of humor and fulfilled his obligations.

“One misconception that people have about my grandfather is that he abandoned his family,” she said. “That was never the case. He and my grandmother couldn’t live together for a long time because of his tuberculosis, but he always took care of his family monetarily.”

She even defends Sam Spade against charges of amorality from critics.

“He was a pragmatist,” she said. “He had his own moral code, and he stuck to it.”

Hammett wrote only five novels, the last of which was “The Thin Man.”

“That’s really where he made his money, from ‘The Thin Man,’” said Rivett. “At one point, he (Hammett) was getting $1,200 a week from book and movie money, which was a lot in the early ’50s.”

If you decide to plunge into the Big Read and make the acquaintance of one of the first “hard-boiled” detective characters, Rivett has a suggestion.

“Watch for the body language versus the dialogue,” she said. “My grandfather always knew when people were lying. It came from being a detective.”

"Classic, before Bogart" by Darrell Laurant, The News & Advance, January 24, 2010

Film Noir Fridays: Chinatown

Join us on Fridays throughout the Big Read program for special cinematic journeys through the shady underbelly of film noir. The series kicks off tonight at Sweet Briar College as private investigator J.J. Gittes becomes embroiled in a mysterious murder investigation. The 1974 neo-noir film features many elements of the film noir genre, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama. It stars Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston, and went on to win numerous awards, including the 1974 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

The story, set in Los Angeles in 1937, was inspired by the historical disputes over land and water rights that had raged in southern California during the 1910s and 20s, in which William Mulholland acted on behalf of Los Angeles interests to secure water rights in the Owens Valley.

Will J.J. uncover the massive conspiracy? Forget it, Jake, its Chinatown.



Just the Facts:
Date: January 22, 2010
Time: 8:00 pm
Location: Sweet Briar College, Fitness/Athletic Center Class of ’48 Movie Theatre (map it!)
Cost: FREE

Not convinced? Check out the Tomatometer at Rotten Tomatoes to see what film critics and film lovers have to say!

The Scoop on Detective Fiction

Credit for creating the first true detective probably belongs to Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), whose story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” pioneered the idea of a lone mastermind sifting clues and out-thinking everyone around him. The most popular fictional detective surely remains Sherlock Holmes, the London-based amateur sleuth created by Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). Dashiell Hammett transplanted the genteel British detective story to America and gave it an urban realism that would have baffled Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie. In the 1920s and 1930s, Hammett wrote more than eighty short stories and five novels. His crisp style and vivid slang created a gritty, street-level realism that registered strongly with the public.

Often set in large, corrupt cities, Hammett stories tend to feature an independent-minded detective, a working man at odds with his violent society. His motivations-whether monetary reward, a search for truth, or the preservation of his integrity-remain for the reader to decide. In a phrase popularized by the great newspaperman Damon Runyon, a Hammett detective was “hardboiled”: fundamentally a good egg, but far from soft. Hammett’s genius lay in devising a style to match his masculine heroes. Hammett never wasted an adjective, refining a tightly visual vocabulary until everything inessential was boiled away. The stories are often set in large cities where graft and corruption are commonplace. The hard-boiled hero is usually a man at odds with society, whose motivation stems not from monetary reward but from a personal code and the search for truth.

“I’m one of the few – if there are any more – people moderately literate who take the detective story seriously. I don't mean that I necessarily take my own or anybody else's seriously – but the detective story as a form. Some day somebody's going to make ‘literature’ of it ... and I'm selfish enough to have my hopes.” -Dashiell Hammett, 1928

Hammett stories were popular in the pulps, his serialized novels found mainstream publishers, and filmmakers have enthusiastically adapted his work to the screen. He is credited with bringing detective fiction from pulp into the literary mainstream. His crisp writing style and use of slang brought the language of the streets to the page, creating an urban realism that registered strongly with the public. He developed his style by writing case reports during his stint as an operative for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. This “just the facts” approach colored his writing, creating highly readable, fast-moving stories. Hammett strove for the highest standard in dialogue, setting, and pacing.

Hammett employs a spare style with plain sentence structure and fairly accessible language. Conversations in his stories convey messages beyond the literal meaning of the page’s words. The pacing of Hammett’s writing and his penchant for hairpin plot turns are what endeared him to readers of the pulps, and later to millions of fans of detective fiction. The Maltese Falcon has an intricate series of plot twists, but the story is told in a straightforward, uncomplicated way. Hammett’s style has influenced a host of later writers of detective fiction, including Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Dorothy B. Hughes, and Walter Mosley.

Excerpt taken from the National Endowment for the Arts Reader’s Guide. For more insider information on The Maltese Falcon, click here.

High-Velocity Falcons

Excited about meeting our live birds tomorrow at The Maltese Mystery Day? We won't have any peregrine falcons on hand but you can check out this amazing video from National Geographic which tests how fast a peregrine falcon flies.

High Velocity Falcon

[Hint: falcons definitely fly faster than humans skydive!]

See you tomorrow, bird brains!

Maltese Mystery Day

The Maltese Falcon is officially on the fly over Lynchburg! The mysterious twists and turns of Hammett's classic noir novel will begin with a special Maltese Mystery Day hosted by Amazement Square on January 16th.

Just the Facts:
Date: January 16, 2010
Time: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location: Amazement Square (map it!)
Cost: Special all-day reduced admission rate of $3.00/person

We'll be handing out free information regarding both our Big Read and Little Read selections, including limited copies of both books. You'll also be able to pick up event calendars, reader's guides, audio guides, temporary tattoos, and more!

Programming Highlights:

A live bird presentation from the Wildlife Center of Virginia

A special program by evidence technicians with the Lynchburg Police Department

The Physics of Flight with Dr. Peter Sheldon of Randolph College

A special visit from our furry friends at the Humane Society

Hands-on forensic science stations with fun activities for all ages

For more information, visit The Big Read Lynchburg or call Amazement Square at 434-845-1888.

Who is Dashiell Hammett?

It’s possible that more people attended Dashiell Hammett’s birth than his funeral. Samuel Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland, on May 27, 1894, on the family farm called, with a touch of fateful poetry, Hopewell and Aim. Hammett grew to be a solitary teenager, quick to fight and hungry to read, a frequenter of libraries. The family’s shaky finances obliged him to quit school at fourteen and go to work.

In 1915 Hammett joined the Baltimore office of Pinkerton’s National Detective Service and subsequently filed three years of case reports, whose sparsely embellished style colored most everything Hammett ever wrote. When Hammett joined the U.S. Army in 1918, he never got closer to World War I than Camp Meade, Maryland, where he drove an ambulance until his tuberculosis led to an honorable discharge. Hammett then resumed his Pinkerton career in Washington state, where TB eventually landed him back in a military hospital.

There he met Josephine “Jose” Dolan, a nurse whose care proved so attentive that they moved to San Francisco and married in July of 1921. They welcomed their first daughter four months later. In October 1922, after a year of scribbling at the San Francisco Public Library, Hammett sent H.L. Mencken a very short story called “The Parthian Shot” for his magazine The Smart Set. The story was published, launching Hammett's career.

From The Smart Set, Hammett soon graduated to detective stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask about a nameless detective. In time, self-contained stories gave way to installments of serial novels, which Hammett then reworked into the books Red Harvest (1929) and The Dain Curse (1929). He published The Maltese Falcon in 1930, moved to New York, and wrote The Glass Key (1931) and The Thin Man (1934), his last novel.

By 1934, Hammett was written out. Though he had separated from Jose five years before and begun a lasting affair with the playwright Lillian Hellman in 1931, though he remained a devoted absentee father to his girls in southern California. More and more, Hammett concentrated his energies on politics. He gave considerable sums of money to help fight fascism in Spain, co-published a magazine called Equality, and gave many political speeches. In 1942, he rejoined the U.S. Army during World War II as an unhealthy forty-eight-year old private and served three years in Alaska, editing the base newspaper called The Adakian.

But his military service didn’t save him during the anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950s, when he spent six months in jail for contempt of court. Senator Joseph McCarthy even succeeded in yanking three-hundred copies of Hammett's books from State Department libraries around the world, until they were restored by order of one highly placed fan: President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

None of this persecution was good for Hammett's ever-precarious health and finances. He died on January 10, 1961, in a New York hospital. Hellman, his sister, and three cousins buried him three days later in the military cemetery at Arlington, Virginia, roughly forty miles from his birthplace at Hopewell and Aim.

Excerpt taken from the National Endowment for the Arts Reader’s Guide. For more insider information on The Maltese Falcon, click here.

What is The Maltese Falcon?

Dashiell Hammett’s novel, The Maltese Falcon (1930), set the standard by which all subsequent detective fiction would be judged. Hammett's clean prose and sharp ear for dialogue produced an exceedingly readable novel with enough twists to keep the reader turning the pages in search of clues.

Set in San Francisco, the story takes place over a six-day period in December 1928. A tough, independent detective, Sam Spade is hired by the beautiful and mysterious “Miss Wonderly,” who walks into his office pleading desperately for help finding her sister. This bogus job gets Spade's partner, Miles Archer, and a thug named Thursby killed that same night. Though he disliked Archer, Spade’s personal moral code dictates that “when a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it.”

The police question Spade’s innocence because he and Archer’s wife were having an affair. After Miss Wonderly summons Spade to her hotel the next day, she confesses that her real name is Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Spade knows he’s being manipulated but remains uncertain about Brigid’s motives. He returns to his office, where the shadowy Joel Cairo pays a surprise visit and offers five thousand dollars for the return of a jewel-encrusted black bird.



Spade soon realizes that O’Shaughnessy, Cairo, and Cairo’s boss, Casper Gutman, are all seeking an elusive falcon statuette once owned by the legendary Knights of Rhodes. Spade is not a man to shy away from a fight, but he is also clever enough to play along in order to find the falcon and prove himself innocent.

Who murdered Spade’s partner? Where is the Maltese falcon? Is Brigid O’Shaughnessy as guileless as she claims? Will Spade risk himself to save her? Among many other things, The Maltese Falcon is about what it’s like to want something – a fortune, a lover, or even respect – so badly that you would kill for it, give up a chance at happiness to get it, until finally the chase itself means more to you than what you’re chasing.

Excerpt taken from the National Endowment for the Arts Reader’s Guide. For more insider information on The Maltese Falcon, click here.

Big Read Lynchburg 2010

Has really been over a year since our last Big Read program? It's hard to believe that all those wonderful discussions, programs, and bonding over Bradbury happened in 2008. Reminiscing about Fahrenheit 451 does make me eager for the 2010 Big Read to take flight.

We have some wonderful things in store for The Maltese Falcon including:

• Film Noir Fridays film series, where you can enjoy free film screenings at local colleges
• An all-ages murder-mystery game at the Lynchburg College Library
• “Maltese Mystery Day” at Amazement Square on January 16th, featuring hands-on forensic science activities, crime solving, falcons, and more!
• Lively community book discussions held at locations throughout Lynchburg
• Speakeasy Night at Rivermont Pizza - come enjoy Mint-tease Falcons, a costume contest, and sweet jams
• “Art on the FLY” art contest with cash prizes for students in grades 6-12

Want to be involved? Join our Facebook group and spread the word!