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: May 2021
Hammett: World No Smoking Day
Happy No Smokers, smokers — May 31 — with a news tidbit from 82 years ago, courtesy Evan “Scoop” Lewis.
Hammett: Couffignal
Like a bloodhound with his nose ever to the hardboiled pavement, a few days ago Brian Leno let me know that Library of America put up another Continental Op yarn by Hammett as the feature Story of the Week. I … Continue reading
Hammett: Birthday 127
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was born on this date in 1894. I’ve done little birthday parties for him in the past (the home movie clip from ten years ago perhaps being the best), but for this one I’m going to let … Continue reading
Posted in Dash
Tagged "First Aide to Murder", "The Assistant Murderer", Alec Rush, Evan Lewis, newspaper action, Saturday Home Magazine
Sinister Cinema: Ditko
Brian Leno sends in a pithy movie review that for some of us, says it all: “Last night watched Doctor Strange and, for the most part, I enjoyed it. Amazing that with all the computer generated special effects to display … Continue reading
Hammett: Fechheimer Wiki’ed
Just got a note from William Denton, of RARA-AVIS fame, who says, “You probably won’t remember, but in February 2008 you very generously took me on a solo Hammett tour, including going up into Bill Arney’s apartment, which made the … Continue reading
Rediscovered: The First of Many, Bumped Off by Haggard
Kevin Cook, noted book and pulp collector, provides a footnote to his recent musings: The adventure novel King Solomon’s Mines was not H. Rider Haggard’s first book, but it introduced the protagonist Allan Quatermain. In between King Solomon’s Mines and Allan Quatermain he … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Wittgenstein Dug Norbie
Kent Harrington pops in a link to a CrimeReads article about how the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wolfed down a steady diet of hardboiled American pulp crime fiction. Not something your average guy on the street would be expecting to hear, … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Crimereads, E. Hoffmann Price, Evan Lewis, Kent Harrington, literary suicides, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Norbert Davis
Rediscovered: Great Scott!
You want to talk about Sir Walter Scott suddenly being in the air? Kevin Cook stumbled over his name during his current reread of Machen’s Far Off Things and then noticed coverage of the flick Ivanhoe in the new issue … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Brian Leno, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Kevin Cook, Simon and Kirby, Sir Walter Scott
Rediscovered: More Musings on Haggard
Every week or three the noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook starts mulling over some bookish matter, and often enough it leads him to H. Rider Haggard: It’s weird sometimes how references to one book or author show up … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Arthur A. Nelson, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard, Kevin Cook, Sir Walter Scott, Tim Willocks
Rediscovered: Arcane Arkham Arch-Collectors Corner No. 4
As is his wont, Brian Leno was moping around on eBay the other day and noticed a copy of the Arkham House edition of A. E. Coppard’s Fearful Pleasures — it sold for $108.27. The trick angle was that a … Continue reading
