Dashiell Hammett (post 4): Why did he have writer’s block for the last decades of his life? Why did he fail in his attempt to write literary novels?

After Hammett’s great success in writing detective stories and novels, he sought to prove that he could write novels of a more literary kind. Was his writer’s block related to his attempt to write literary novels; if so, why?

One possibility is that Hammett did not have any storytelling, alternate personalities suited to writing literary novels. However, I have just started to read his novel, The Dain Curse, and aside from the nameless protagonist, hero-detective, Continental Op, there is a character who is a writer. This writer, as far as I can see so far, does not write detective stories, and seems to be an intellectual. So I think that Hammett probably did have alternate personalities suited to making the switch to literary novels.

Another possibility is that his detective and literary personalities had artistic differences, so to speak. And since “Dashiell Hammett” was the author of detective novels, the personality known by that name could not be the author of any other kind. For example, when Agatha Christie wrote novels that were not detective novels, she wrote them under a pseudonym. So Hammett’s block might have been resolved by writing under a pseudonym. But maybe he tried that; I don’t know.