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
Category Archives: Dash
Hammett: It’s Raining Black Birds
As Sam Spade comes roaring into Public Domain with the New Year, Steeger Books offers an edition of The Maltese Falcon using the original text from Black Mask — intro by pulp historian Will Murray. Serious book collector types will … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, News
Tagged Black Mask, Book Collecting, Mark Coggins, Poltroon Press, Sam Spade pastiches, Steeger Books, Will Murray
Hammett: Dashammet
Will Murray digs away in aging archives, turning up cool tidbits. Here’s Will: I came across these excerpts from Mort Weisinger’s Pony Express gossip column in Writer’s Review back in the 1930s. “DASHIELL HAMMETT is busy in Hollywood working for … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco
Tagged Erle Stanley Gardner, Mort Weisinger, Will Murray, William Powell
Hammett: In the Jeopardy! Matrix
Obviously deeply imbedded in the neurons that summon up clews for Jeopardy! What can I say, the ghost of Hammett strikes again. On November 13, S42E49, in the first round. Category: Whosolvedit? The $400 clew: With the name of a … Continue reading
Hammett: The Grit Conundrum
Or, The Return of Terry “Pure Texts” Zobeck! Apparently there’s no end to the fine-tuning on issues in re: pure texts. Take it away, Terry: Here’s another example of a Hammett story reprinted by Frederic Dannay where the edits predate … Continue reading
Posted in Dash
Tagged "The Judge Laughed Last", "The New Racket", EQMM, Frederic Dannay, Grit, Mysterious Bookshop, Otto Penzler, Terry Zobeck, Zobeck Series One
891 Post: The Halloween Caper
Got word that some inhabitants of 891 Post — the building where Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon — put together a murder mystery for Halloween. That’s Mark Murphy as Sam Spade — or is it the ghost of Sam Spade? … Continue reading
Hammett: More Spadework from Coggins
Mark Coggins drops me a note to say, “I’ve a second Spade story, “The Russian Egg” in Eclectica Magazine which follows immediately from the first. “It has a little to say about the backstory of Gutman’s daughter.” Mark also supplies … Continue reading
Hammett: Jeopardy! Combines the Obvious with a Huh-What?
Last season — S41E207 — 6/24/25 — in the first round Jeopardy! offered the category “Chapter & Non-Verse.” The $600 clew: “The Black Bird”: “Yes, with ten thousand insurance, no children, and a wife who didn’t like him.” “The Black … Continue reading
Hammett: Jeopardy! Does a Double-Tap
Jeopardy! just kicked off a new season, S42, while I still have a couple of posts in the files mentioning clews from earlier in the year. The most interesting use was that in their sideshow, Jeopardy Masters. S3E2, aired on … Continue reading
Hammett: Back in the Jeopardy! Saddle
Last week Jeopardy! returned with Season 42, and took me by surprise by immediately dropping a Hammett clew into the mix. S42E4 9.11.2025 — the Double Jeopardy round. Category: Writers at Rest. The $1200 clew: Lillian Hellman spoke of his … Continue reading
