On this date, May 27th, in 1894, Dashiell Hammett, creator of Sam Spade and Nick and Nora Charles, was born just up the road from here in St. Mary's County, Maryland. Since yesterday's posting was about Memorial Day and veterans who were also crime fiction authors, it's appropriate to mention that Hammett enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I and served in the Motor Ambulance Corps. Even though he contracted tuberculosis during the War and was considered disabled thereafter, he pulled strings so he could enlist in World War Two, where he spent most of his time as an Army Sergeant in the Aleutian Islands, editing an Army newspaper (and promptly retiring from the war with emphysema). Due to his years of service, upon his death in 1961, he was buried in Arlington Cemetery, Plot: Section 12, Lot 508, Grid Y/Z-23.
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