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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: December 2019
Rediscovered: Woolrich in The Mask
Another year down on These Mean Streets! How about we go out with a sharp Kachow! from the ever-ready roscoe? The noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook decided to dive into his holdings and dig out the autograph of … Continue reading
Hammett: v. Carroll John Daly
Digging around in old partially mocked-up posts, I found another one which appears to be from circa late 2016 or early 2017: Last October I got in a note from hardboiled pulp hound Terry Zobeck, in which he reported: Today’s mail brought … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged Black Mask, Carroll John Daly, Race Williams, Terry Zobeck, The Snarl of the Beast
Two-Gun Bob: Top Ten, Baby
Brian Leno keeps his thumb on the pulse, and just popped in the news that Robert E. Howard’s landmark Cthulhu Mythos yarn “The Black Stone” made the cut for Library of America’s ten most read stories of the year — … Continue reading
Hammett: Sneakin’ onto Jeopardy!
The December 27 2019 airing of Jeopardy! (S36E80) didn’t feature any Hammett Q’s or A’s, but the creator of the short fat Op shadowed his way onto the scene anyway. During the sequence where Alex Trebek interviews the contestants, the … Continue reading
Hammett: “If I Had Been a Black Mask Reader in 1926”
I told John Locke that once his post on Hammett’s early years in the writing business hit the blog, if he noticed any places where he wanted to tweak a word or whatever, just to let me know and I’d … Continue reading
Hammett: “Brigid Skates”
Back in 2009 I had a potential brush with the Court of Historical Review in San Francisco, which plays with old crimes — for fun, they re-try them. The loose plan was that I would provide background info on evidence … Continue reading
Hammett: From Poisonville to Red Harvest, “Chapter One”
A couple of months ago I was prowling through the inventory of Mean Streets posts to salvage as yet unpublished material from the backlog. A few tentative ideas that got to skeletal mock-up stage I just deleted — weeding the … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged Black Mask, Frederic Dannay, Jo Hammett, Paul Herman, PulpFest, Red Harvest, Richard Layman, Terry Zobeck, The Big Book of the Continental Op
Death Lit: You Might Want It for Xmas
— but copies won’t be circulating to the general public until next year. Still, I guess you could put it on a post-Xmas wish list. The item in question seems aimed at readers who like burglars and Lawrence Block — … Continue reading
Hammett Takes on the Writing Racket, by John Locke
Mean Streets readers get a Christmas Treat this year from no less than the pulp authority John Locke, doing a deep-dive into the origins of Hammett’s career as a writer. John made a cool discovery in the forgotten trade magazines … Continue reading
Hammett: “A pity that this should be called a detective story”
Evan Lewis is digging around in electronic newspaper archives again, and today he’s featuring several newsprint items related to the 1930 publication of that instant classic known as The Maltese Falcon. Fun — and even educational — stuff. One highlight: … Continue reading
