Welcome to a hard-boiled and not without noir blog with news and reviews, occasional outbursts of maniacal Autograph Hound activity, plus archival records from the forty-five year run of The Dashiell Hammett Tour. 
The Dashiell Hammett Tour
1977-2022
Arkham House Ephemera
The Classic Years 1937–1973
Death Lit
Essays and Reviews Selected from Fifty Years of Writing 1974–2024
Willeford
The Book
Monthly Archives: February 2019
Two-Gun Bob: Brian Leno, Reporting Ringside
Whoa. Courtesy the production wizards over at The Cimmerian Press, yesterday Brian Leno popped out his second TriplePunchPack — Ringside with Robert E. Howard. Just an appetizer against the full feedbag of the book he’s working on, an in-depth look … Continue reading
Posted in Boxing, News, REH
Tagged Brian Leno, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Dempsey, Jim Tully, Kid Dula, The Cimmerian Press
Sinister Cinema: Derleth and The Tube
Not to be left out of the Derleth Anniversary action thundering around the internet, Brian Leno sends in some start-of-the-day thoughts. Take it, Brian: The other night I watched Night Gallery and the episode was “The Doll” by Algernon … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit
Tagged Algernon Blackwood, August Derleth, Brian Leno, Night Gallery, Rod Serling, Thriller
Rediscovered: Another Derleth-Hater Heard From
Or, make that a self-identified “recovering Derleth-hater.” The “recovering” bit is important to the story. Deuce Richardson kind of tag-teamed with Morgan Holmes yesterday and also put up a birthday post in tribute to August Derleth, of Arkham House, Mycroft & … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged August Derleth, Deuce Richardson, Frank Belknap Long, John D. Haefele, Morgan Holmes
Death Lit: A Gangster Rap
While I’m thinking about it, I had another review appear that is roughly 90% what I sent in — only 85% in the worse case scenario. Cut is my blurb that the book is “novelized history or history-heavy pulp,” which — … Continue reading
Rediscovered: The Morgman on The Augman, and Others
As any long time reader, surfer or dipper into The Mean Streets may have noticed, I’m not great on anniversaries — yeah, I hop on the annual birth and death days for Hammett, and usually remember Robert E. Howard’s birthday. … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Arkham House, August Derleth, Dwight Frye, John D. Haefele, Morgan Holmes, S.T. Joshi
Hammett: Only $227 mil
Brian Wallace just popped me the news that Sam Spade’s office building in 111 Sutter has sold for a mere 227 million bucks. Makes the sale of Sam Spade’s big cushy armchair for $90,000ish seem like chump change. In addition … Continue reading
Hammett: A Throne Fit for the Fat Man
Evan Lewis, a.k.a. Dave Lewis, tosses up a post on his blog which dovetails nicely into the fact that today is the anniversary of The Maltese Falcon — the book — back in 1930, with the Knopf firm doing the honors. … Continue reading
Hammett: Valentine 89
Eighty-nine years ago today Alfred A. Knopf published the first edition of The Maltese Falcon by a writer named Dashiell Hammett. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.
Rediscovered: Who Knows Solar Pons?
Who knows Pons? Well, John D. Haefele for one. Haefele just put up a post on the Allied Authors blog in which he ruminates in re: August Derleth’s Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street. He gets into all manner of esoterica, … Continue reading
Two-Gun Bob: Conan — in Jeopardy(!)
After getting back to the lair after rolling up to catch Peter Field’s talk in the Tenderloin Museum last night (also grabbed a copy of his new history of The TL — you’ll like it, lots of pictures), I opened … Continue reading
