Dashiell Hammett was born 27 May 1894, St Mary's County, Maryland, to Richard Hammett and Mary Bond. He joined the Baltimore branch of Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1915. He later enlisted in Ambulance Corps in June 1918 and was posted to camp 20 miles from Baltimore, where he caught the flu, which developed into tuberculosis. He was invalided out of the army in July 1919, and returned to Pinkerton's. Hammett entered the veterans hospital near Tacoma, Washington, with tuberculosis in 1920.Up ...[Read Story]