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: January 2020
Rediscovered: Bitten by a Radioactive John Hancock
When laying out his origin story as a collector of signed books the other day, Kevin Cook told me not to bother using the details about hanging out with Karl Edward Wagner, watching the local college team on the tube, … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Autographs, Basil Rathbone, Brian Leno, Clifford Simak, Frank Buck, Harlan Ellison, Karl Edward Wagner, Kevin Cook
Rediscovered: A-No. 1, “The Famous Tramp”
Not only did John Locke spot the pulps in Emperor of the North, based on “The Famous Tramp” A-No. 1, he mentioned that he had the series of books that made A-No. 1 famous. (Or is it >A-No. 1<?!) “Here’s … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Tussling Atop Pulps
Last week John Locke brought us the first installment of Pulps in the Movies (!), featuring Fight Stories. How about another one? “I actually have 250+ of these screen grabs,” John says. “New ones turn up in proportion to the … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit
Tagged A-No. 1, Detective Fiction Weekly, Emperor of the North, John Locke, Lee Marvin, Pulps in the Movies, Western Story
Rediscovered: Chinese Gordon’s Last Stand
Yesterday’s Autograph Hound Saturday was pretty cool — so what’s up for Autograph Hound Super-Sunday? Brian Leno has been keeping his eye on the calendar, too — 135 years slips past so quickly! Adventure, John Hancocks, Last Stands. . . … Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, General Charles George Gordon, George W. Joy, Siege of Khartoum
Rediscovered: Kevin and Karl
“How It All Began” — and by chance, captured on film! Much like the first meeting of me and Bill “The Voice of Noir” Arney, the noted book and pulp — and autograph — collector Kevin Cook has found evidence of … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Autographs, Dave Kurzman, David Drake, Karl Edward Wagner, Kevin Cook, Manly Wade Wellman, Stuart Schiff
Frisco Beat: Legend, Hero or Heartthrob?
For anyone keeping track, I just showed up in Dale Fehringer’s new book, San Francisco: Legends, Heroes & Heartthrobs. Came out at the end of last year. Guess that means I made the cut with blurbage in two books about … Continue reading
Hammett: Would You Believe?
Yeah, sure, Hammett gets mentioned on Jeopardy! all the time. But do you think that’s his only link to the pop culture?
Rediscovered: A. Merritt’s Ishtar
The fantasy writer A. Merritt was born on this date in 1884 and to commemorate the occasion Kevin Cook, noted book and pulp collector, decided to trot out yet another John Hancock from his trove of Merritt signatures. Kevin spills … Continue reading
Rediscovered: The Self-Driving Car in 1963
I pretty much knew doing the little article on David (Kavin’s World) Mason for the new Bill Breiding zine would rekindle my interest in researching that largely forgotten San Francisco writer. Stumbling across my file of info from the early … Continue reading
