Letters, photographs and books, together with a replica of the Maltese Falcon statuette, to go on display at University of South Carolina

A major collection of letters, photos and publications of the late crime fiction author Dashiell Hammett has been acquired by the University of South Carolina and will be made available to students and scholars within the coming year. Hammett was a high-school dropout who created such iconic American characters as the gritty gumshoe Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, and the witty and worldly couple Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man.

The university’s dean of libraries, Tom McNally, said the collection includes hundreds of family letters, photographs, personal effects and documents from Hammett’s daughter Josephine, 89, and two of his grandchildren. It is bolstered by more than 300 Hammett books and rare first editions, as well as dozens of screenplays, files, documents and serialised magazines compiled by Hammett biographer and Columbia publisher Richard Layman.

The collection includes a replica of the black Maltese Falcon statuette from the 1941 film that made actor Humphrey Bogart a sought-after antihero and leading ladies’ man, as well as 400 letters that Hammett wrote to his wife and two daughters and 70 letters written by Hammett’s off-and-on companion in his later years, the playwright Lillian Hellman.

“This is the collection of Hammett material,” McNally said in an interview. “There is no equal to it in terms of published materials, not to mention the Hammett letters.”

McNally said the acquisition was made through gift-and-purchase agreements with the family and Layman, supported by private donations to a university foundation. He declined to disclose any financial details.