Photo: Ulla Montan
Sample of authors
Spillane, Mickey
The American author Frank Morrison Spillane was born in Brooklyn, New York, to an Irish Catholic father and Scottish Presbyterian mother. He was christened twice; Michael was his Catholic baptismal name. At school he was known as Morrison Spillane, and as an adult he took the name Mickey, which was his father’s nickname for him.
When he was still very young, the family moved to Elizabeth, New J...
Literary figures
Sam Spade
Gender: Male
Dashiell Hammett only wrote one novel and a few short stories about the American private detective Sam Spade. The Maltese Falcon, however, is a major classic and like some of his short stories it is the precursor of the hardboiled detective story. The cynical, tough and outright rude Spade and his personal habits are so often copied that they have become clichés.