Just got back last night from a vacation in California, the last half of it in San Francisco. While my wife attended an academic conference, I made a four or five block pilgrimage to the corner of Post and Hyde streets to view the apartment where Dashiell Hammett lived from 1926 to 1929, where he wrote most of his short stories and his first three novels, the last being one of my very best favorites, The Maltese Falcon. (He lived in the top floor corner unit in the photo… Continue