Search donherron.com
About DonHerron.com
In 1977 Don Herron began leading The Dashiell Hammett Tour, now the longest-running literary tour in the nation. On this site you’ll find information on current walks — dates, where to meet, arranging tours by appointment — plus a hard-boiled blog with news, reviews of books and film, and a dash of noir.
The latest and greatest edition to self-guide you up and down the mean streets.
Willeford: The Book
Includes the first “Mr. Hunt” story, “Knives in the Dark.”
Monthly Archives: October 2015
Hammett: That White-Hot Burst in 1925
Image at top: holding down a table at the Mechanics’ Library talk while Nathan Ward merrily signs a copy of his new bio of Hammett. Image at bottom: before we start the proceedings (clew: my wine glass is loaded) we gear … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, REH
Tagged "Dead Yellow Women", Black Mask, Conan, David Fechheimer, Mechanics' Library, Nathan Ward, Pulps
Rediscovered: A Mil Plus Will Get You Boucher Central
Wooden crates house the library of William Anthony Parker White — better known by the penname Anthony Boucher to the mystery-reading world — in the upstairs office area of his longtime Berkeley home. D. S. Black of the Bancroft Library just … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Anthony Boucher, Bancroft Library, D.S. Black, literary homes, Literary Plaques
Rediscovered: Leno Cracks Big Book of Bronze
Our occasional Guest Blogger Brian Leno, hot off the release of his first book — Lovecraft’s Southern Vacation, slugging it out to keep a toehold in the Top Ten and Twenty of the Amazon Horror Litcrit Bestseller list — continues … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Big Book of Bronze, Brian Leno, Cthulhu Mythos, Doc Savage, Farnsworth Wright, Kenneth Robseon, Lester Dent, PulpFest, Rick Lai, Weird Tales, Will Murray
Tour: What Fell Heir to the Pulps?
Waking up today, trying to pour enough joe down around my lungs to get fumbling fingers to lace the gumshoes so I can go out and do another tour, I find an email from Patrick McEntee. He’s the guy who … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, Tour
Tagged Batman, Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Comic Book Jungle, Donald Wandrei, Lovecraft, Mike Friedrich, Neal Adams, Patrick McEntee, Pulps, Steve Ditko, The Shadow
Tombstone: Phil Geauque
Image above: another shot from the Mechanics’ signing, Nathan Ward inscribing a copy of his Hammett bio while I look on; standing to left, Vince Emery in blue, John Law — of The Suicide Club, Cacophony Society, primal Burning Man, … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, SFSC
Tagged Blackjack Jerome, Burning Man, Cacophony Society, Colma, John Law, Kendallville Indiana, Leo Grin, Mechanics' Library, Nathan Ward, Phil Geauque, Vince Emery
Two-Gun Bob: “Academic Wankery” and the Rise of the Uninformed
Image above: Howardian academics confronted with a Deconstructionist Debacle — image itself, a Footnote to the Great Flivver War of 2015 (academics love their footnotes, and this pic precisely captures my view of academics and their apparatus). While of course I intend … Continue reading
Posted in News, REH
Tagged Al Harron, Black Gate, Brian Leno, Castalia House, flivvers, Jeff Shanks, King Kong, Leo Grin, Mark Finn, Morgan Holmes, PEAPS, REHupa, Scott Connors, The Cimmerian, Theo Beale, Vox Day, Weird Tales, Will Murray
Sinister Cinema: The Black Bird Flaps Back to the Old Hood
Tuesday October 27 The Maltese Falcon returns to the hood where it was imagined, plotted and pounded into life on the typewriter keys by none other than longtime Tenderloin resident Dashiell Hammett — the 1941 film version with Bogie, of … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, News
Tagged Bogie, Cadillac Hotel, Jack Dempsey, Tenderloin, Tenderloin Museum
Rediscovered: When Time Proves You Right
Needless to say, you get some soul-satisfaction out of being proven right — and I’m more fortunate than most in that I have been messing around the Robert E. Howard fan arena for decades, with the opportunity to be proven … Continue reading
Posted in REH
Tagged Book Collecting, John D. Haefele, Leo Grin, PulpFest, The Cimmerian, Wandering Star, William Maynard
Frisco Beat: Lit World Has Its Fans
Shot above — sales table at the Mechanics’ Library talk — shot at bottom, foreground: Nathan Ward and Vince Emery somewhere in the process of getting an inscription put into The Lost Detective — background: me talking to a guy … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit, Willeford
Tagged Literary World of San Francisco, Mechanics' Library, Nathan Ward, Vince Emery
Hammett: If Joe Gores Had Written a Bio. . .
Shot above — Nathan Ward chatting as the room fills to capacity in the Mechanics’ Library — art shot at bottom, Table with Book (and Wine, and Mic). If you wanted an autographed copy of The Lost Detective and couldn’t … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, News
Tagged Frederic Dannay, Joe Gores, Mechanics' Library, Mickey Spillane, Nathan Ward, Peter Maravelis, Pinkerton's, Raymond Chandler, Vince Emery