I wouldn’t have heard about PAFs — Premature Anti-Fascists — if a friend weren’t interested in Dashiell Hammett.
Hammett set the tone for American crime writing with The Maltese Falcon and other novels and stories. He made, and blew, a bundle in Hollywood in the 1930s.
In World War II, he enlisted as an ordinary soldier, although it took him three tries. He was 48 and in terrible health. He’d been treated for tuberculosis as a soldier in World War I. He drank and smoked constantly.
In 1942, the Army took him again, although it had already paid him disability money.
Hammett was shipped to Adak, Alaska, where he edited the base newspaper. Duty in the Aleutians wasn’t exactly coveted, and the book on Adak was that the Army sometimes sent troublemakers there, including PAFs. These were leftists who’d seen Hitler coming. They were the kind of people who went to Spain to fight.
Hammett was involved in leftist politics and hated fascism. After serving in the Army in both world wars, he would be sent to prison after refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
• Sources: Peter Porco, “Deadline Adak: Dashing Dashiell Hammett’s Adak newspaper for the troops”; Anchorage Daily News, Jan. 18, 2015.
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