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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.”
Category Archives: Dash
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
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
Hammett: “The Judge Laughed Last”
A decade ago Terry Zobeck did the pure text treatment on the minor Hammett yarn “The Judge Laughed Last” — originally published in 1924 in Black Mask as “The New Racket” — but Evan Lewis has sleuthed out a good … Continue reading
Posted in Dash
Tagged "The Judge Laughed Last", "The New Racket", Black Mask, Evan Lewis, Terry Zobeck
Mort: Bill Arney
It’s a sad day in Sam Spade’s San Francisco. Got a note from Mike Humbert last night to inform me that Bill Arney died yesterday morning, September 28 2021. As of now, I don’t know what got him. I’m kicking … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, News, Tour
Tagged 891 Post, Bill Arney, Hammett Cult in San Francisco, Mike Humbert
Mort: William F. Nolan
A few days after the fact, word drifted in that William F. Nolan died, age 93, on July 15. I scanned some of the obits, all rightly selecting the science fiction novel Logan’s Run as the book of all his … Continue reading
Tour: By Appointment with Drake
The walk I did years ago for science fiction and fantasy writer David Drake, in town to do a signing in Borderlands Books, came up the other day in a blog from Deuce Richardson. Deuce liked the anecdote Drake told … Continue reading
Hammett: vs. Burdine’s
And it sounds like Hammett won, if you don’t factor getting arrested into your win/lose calculations. Brian Wallace pops another Hammett item my way from his constant scouring of the web, but he is provoked to mention, “This really sounds … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Juggling The Glass Key and Red Harvest
Today Evan Lewis in his digging through digital archives pulls up some interesting news articles from 1941, covering the birth of a film version of Hammett’s Red Harvest. Hollywood had decided not to do a new version of The Glass … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film
Tagged Alan Ladd, Brian Donlevy, Evan Lewis, Paulette Goddard, Red Harvest, The Glass Key, Veronica Lake
