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Case file s216 · Literature and art · 1961
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1961
Dashiell Hammett: Dashiell Hammett 1951
Dashiell Hammett. Unknown, dedicated to Bettmann Archive. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
10 January 1961
Place
New York · United States
Field
novelist (The Maltese Falcon) · Literature and writing on the timeline
Legal tradition
New York law; federal tax liens · Common law
Historical event
McCarthyism and the blacklist
Religion
Dashiell Hammett: Catholic (recorded as Catholic Church on Wikidata)
Member of
Civil Rights Congress, Communist Party of the United States of America (Wikidata)
Literature and artBurned papers and destroyed workSeized by the statePostwarNorth AmericaUnited States

The US government seized Dashiell Hammett's royalties for back taxes, and after he died Lillian Hellman took control of his copyrights

Hammett was jailed in 1951 for refusing to name contributors to a left-wing bail fund†. The federal government sued him for back taxes and won a judgment of $140,000. His royalties and all other payments were blocked. His daughter Jo Hammett wrote that the IRS claimed most of his income. One reading of his letters is that he believed, wrongly, that as a soldier he did not owe tax on his royalties. Lillian Hellman was his partner from 1931 until his death. Soon after he died she moved to gain legal control of his copyrights, despite the terms of his will, citing her plan to write his biography. She dropped that plan and then proposed an authorised version by other writers under her direction. It never appeared. Hammett's daughters regained a share of the rights after Hellman died in 1984†. Hammett had served in both world wars and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery†.

What the law took from it

A tax lien follows the copyrights, and a companion outside the will can still gain control by buying or negotiating them.

Sources
  1. London Review of BooksScholarship
  2. bu.eduScholarship
  3. kirkusreviews.comPress
  4. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “The US government seized Dashiell Hammett's royalties for back taxes, and after he died Lillian Hellman took control of his copyrights,” story s216, https://www.celebrity.estate/dashiell-hammett-1961, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Literature and artBurned papers and destroyed workSeized by the statePostwarNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States