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: October 2021
Rediscovered: FrankenHammer
To keep Autograph Hound Super-Sunday going, Halloween-style, how about a glance at a formal display from Brian Leno’s extensive collection of John Hancocks? A couple of days ago Brian informed me: “Got up this morning and figured today would be … Continue reading
Posted in Film
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, Christopher Lee, Halloween, Hammer Films, Hazel Court, Peter Cushing, The Curse of Frankenstein
Rediscovered: Vampira for the Holiday
Autograph Hound Super-Sunday — and on Halloween! Does our resident Autograph Hound Brian Leno have anything to put on display? A rhetorical question, really, because he’s done Halloween before, and I’ll bet on him doing it again. Take it away, … Continue reading
Posted in Film
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, Halloween, Maila Nurmi, Paavo Nurmi, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Vampira
Frisco Beat: Wolf and Greek Go All Primeval
Our pal Morgan “The Morgman” Holmes has a dictum — either the product of his own profound deliberations or picked up over shots of whiskey in a seedy bar held together with vines and rattan somewhere on the outskirts of … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, Lit, News, REH
Tagged Before Adam, Clark Ashton Smith, George Sterling, Jack London, literary suicides, Lovecraft, Morgan Holmes, Popular Magazine, Vince Emery
Mort: Floyd Salas
Just got word that Floyd Salas died Sunday the 17th at the age of 90. Tattoo the Wicked Cross, baby. His companion of 38 years, Claire Ortalda, did the obit for Berkleyside — an excellent piece of writing, rounding up … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Chicken-Fried Cthulhu
This morning Brian Leno hit me with a curiosity that could appeal to Lovecraft fans everywhere, an inimitable rendering of a pivotal moment in “The Call of Cthulhu” (at least, I’m fairly confident that’s the mise–en–scène for this tableau). “Went through … Continue reading
Hammett: Some Jeopardy! Mojo?
It’s been a few months since Jeopardy! dipped into the Hammett clew pile, a sprawling mass of info and allusion that might well go on forever. On Monday October 11, they offered in the Double Jeopardy round a $400 clew, … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Haefele on The Candlelight Press
For you bibliophiles out there, John D. Haefele just put up a comprehensive yet compact history and survey of The Candlelight Press — one of the presses August Derleth of Arkham House had a couple of fingers in for a … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Arkham House, August Derleth, Book Collecting, Candlelight Press, John D. Haefele, Peter Ruber, Vincent Starrett
Frisco Beat: Mark Coggins on 891 Post and Bill Arney
Just got a note from crime writer Mark Coggins rounding up some stuff about the late Bill Arney on Twitter. One of the links offers Bill reading something by Mark on KQED. I bet there’s a lot of Bill’s voice … Continue reading
Hammett: Slick Dannay Blurbs from EQMM
Today Evan Lewis dropped Part 1 of a new series in which he shows off the little introductory blurbs Frederick Dannay gave to various Hammett stories as he reprinted them in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. They’re probably different than the … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: Up in Spade’s Room
Thomas Burchfield just put up an article on the late great Bill Arney — especially useful because it first appeared in 2009 and contains lots of info on Bill’s movements in San Francisco. I’d almost forgotten the breakup with a … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, News, Tour
Tagged 891 Post, Bill Arney, Hammett Cult in San Francisco, House of Fans, Maltese Falcon Society, Thomas Burchfield
