Check out Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Wakefield" from
his Twice-Told Tales (1837.) One can see where Hammett might
have gotten jumpstarted on his Flitcraft parable.
Hawthorne begins "Wakefield" by saying:
"In some old magazine or newspaper I recollect a story, told
as truth, of a man--let us call him Wakefield--who absented
himself for a long time from his wife."
But the ending I find sweet...
"Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world,
individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems
to one another and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a
moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his
place forever. Like Wakefield, he may become, as it were, the
Outcast of the Universe."
Hammett read Hawthorne.
Happy T-day
Fred Zackel
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