The Dashiell Hammett Suite at Hotel Union Square

Attention literary buffs! Hotel Union Square, San Francisco's original boutique hotel, is home to the world's only Dashiell Hammett Suite, dedicated to the celebrated author best known for his novel "The Maltese Falcon" (1930). The famous scribe loved the hotel so much that he booked his bride-to-be Josephine Dolan in a suite on the night before their 1921 wedding.

San Francisco-based artist and interior designer Lisa Compagno meticulously created the "Dashiell Hammett Suite," treating guests to a history lesson in the life of the famed scribe. From the two stainless steel eyes hanging in the entrance (a reference to Hammett's short story "The Girl with the Silver Eyes") to the hand towels adorned with Hammett's image in the bathroom, no detail has been overlooked in this large corner suite. Special touches include: an antique suitcase filled with Hammett books; an old fashioned typewriter; a collage dedicated to Hammett books and movies; black and white photos of Hammett's wife and daughters; a vintage-style radio; and a mural of the shadow of "The Thin Man."

About Dashiell Hammett
Born in Maryland in 1894, Samuel "Dashiell" Hammett dropped out of school at the age of fourteen. Over the next several years Hammett held a series of menial jobs until 1915 when he became a detective at Pinkerton National Detective Agency, located in San Francisco's James Flood Building. In 1922, Hammett began his writing career, recreating on paper his real-life experiences as a former detective. From 1922 to1934, Hammett produced several short stories and five novels including The Thin Man, Blood Money, Red Harvest, The Dain Curse and The Glass Key. Today, Hammett is regarded as the founding father of the "hard-boiled" genre, as well as being credited for elevating detective fiction to the level of literature.