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
Author Archives: Don
Rediscovered: Due to the Death
Paul Dobish checks in with his latest acquisitions in the quest to land Arkham House ephemera, in this case excavating in the fecund primordial mire that is The Due to the Death Series. In Arkham House Ephemera: The Classic Years … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Arkham House Ephemera The Classic Years 1937-1973, August Derleth, Book Collecting, Paul Dobish
Rediscovered: The Morgman’s Long Trek Across the Blogosphere — a One-Morgman Wandering of the Tribes
Morgan “The Morgman” Holmes let me know that he’s got a post up on the George Sterling caveman novel I once reviewed here, and in which I invoked The Morgman Dictum. Only now he shows up on Substack. You may … Continue reading
Rediscovered: William Desmond Taylor
And in this case, as usual, rediscovered in Brian Leno’s storied trove. Autograph Hound Saturday once more — and here’s Brian: I’m really digging into my autograph folders, probably just procrastinating to avoid stacking and shelving books. I don’t know … Continue reading
Hammett: And Another Dashiell
Everyone else may well know that rocker Alice Cooper has a son named Dashiell Cooper, b. 1985, also a rocker. I just stumbled over the news during casual browsing on the net. No doubt many more celebrities named a kid … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Eph Book Back to 7% Off
The last few days Amazon has had Eph Book — alias Arkham House Ephemera: The Classic Years — at 5% off. Today I see they’ve cut it a notch more to 7% off, and it’s in the top tier of … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Random John Hancocks
Autograph Hound Saturday again, and the maniacal Autograph Hound Brian Leno has been digging around in his trove, reminding himself of what he’s got. “The Intruder by Beaumont is interesting,” Brian says, “because the dust jacket is signed by William … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, Charles Beaumont, George Clayton Johnson, Roger Corman, Twilight zone, William F. Nolan, William Shatner, Zane Grey
Rediscovered: Secrets of the Leno Library
In the shot yesterday of (at least a small part of) The Leno Library I noticed the top row of books by or about Robert E. Howard, this month’s birthday boy — and next row down, on left, the Gnome … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, REH
Tagged Autographs, Book Collecting, Brian Leno, Creeps by Night, Jeff Jones, Richard S. Shaver, Roads, Roy Krenkel, Seabury Quinn
Rediscovered: The Leno Library
To entertain me, Brian Leno just sent along a shot of a cabinet he set up. Nice. But kind of sad, too — I was thinking Brian had enough books he wouldn’t have to fill in vital space with a … Continue reading
