Hammett, Chandler, and the Writers Guild.

Ad for Mister Dynamite (1935)

In the Writers Guild Foundation's online On the Shoulders of Giants: Early Writers Guild History are the following goodies:

• Dashiell Hammett's 1935 membership application (his screen credit of the past three years is listed as Mister Dynamite [1935], which is an adaptation of his "On the Make"). The page after Hammett's application is Lillian Hellman's application.

• Cover of the guild's July 1947 The Screen Writer, which lists Raymond Chandler's "Critical Notes" that critique the contents of the May 1947 issue. One of his observations (in response to an article by Joseph L. Mankiewitz) is "I do not think a writer has to become a producer or director to be an independent artist . . . there is a cleavage between the creative art of writing and the arts of directing and producing..." (31). The July 1947 issue also has "Writing and Realization" by Meyer Levin (author of the Leopold and Loeb-inspired Compulsion) about a film in Palestine that involved him.

The foundation also has posted "The Top 20 Best Written TV Series." No. 15 is Hill Street Blues, no. 9 is The Wire, no. 3 is The Twilight Zone, and no. 1 is The Sopranos.