Which American author wrote 'The Maltese Falcon'?

Which American author wrote The Maltese Falcon? Dashiell Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon, the landmark hard-boiled detective novel featuring private investigator Sam Spade. Hammett was an American author whose crime fiction helped define the tougher, more realistic style that became associated with hard-boiled mysteries.

The novel first appeared as a five-part serial in Black Mask magazine from September 1929 through January 1930. Alfred A. Knopf published it in book form in 1930. Its plot follows Spade through a dangerous search for a jewel-encrusted statuette, as competing criminals lie, manipulate one another, and pursue the supposedly priceless object.

Hammett's earlier career with the Pinkerton Detective Agency influenced his writing, although he said Sam Spade was not based on one particular person. Instead, Spade was an idealized version of the private detectives Hammett had known and observed.

A common mix-up is with Raymond Chandler, another major American mystery writer. Chandler created Philip Marlowe, while Hammett created Spade and also wrote Red Harvest, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man. John Huston's famous 1941 film adaptation helped make the novel even more widely known.