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: Frisco
Hammett Takes on the Writing Racket, by John Locke
Mean Streets readers get a Christmas Treat this year from no less than the pulp authority John Locke, doing a deep-dive into the origins of Hammett’s career as a writer. John made a cool discovery in the forgotten trade magazines … Continue reading
Hammett: “A pity that this should be called a detective story”
Evan Lewis is digging around in electronic newspaper archives again, and today he’s featuring several newsprint items related to the 1930 publication of that instant classic known as The Maltese Falcon. Fun — and even educational — stuff. One highlight: … Continue reading
Rediscovered: San Francisco — and California — Mysteries
Just got tipped off to a recent interview with librarian Randal Brandt on CrimeReads, if you’d care to drift over and check it out. Randal took up the search for mysteries set in San Francisco after I donated my collection … Continue reading
Hammett: Unearthed — The Samuels’ Campaign
We haven’t seen a lot of Tenderloin Terry Zobeck recently, but you know he’s out there, ever sleuthing the Mean Streets. He’s been working on finalizing his biblio of Lawrence Block, but when he gets scent of a Hammett quest, … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, News
Tagged Albert S. Samuels, Lawrence Block, Library of Congress, Marc LaViolette, Richard Layman, Terry Zobeck, Western Advertising
Frisco Beat: Where are the Fanzines of Yesteryear?; or, a Little Riff on David Mason’s Devil’s Food
Aha! I warned uber fanzine guy Bill Breiding that if he messed up any bits in an article on Sword-and-Sorcery writer David Mason (Kavin’s World, etc.) I sent in for his new zine Portable Storage Two that I’d correct on the trusty … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: My Earliest Kent Inscription
And to wrap up this auto weekend — to give you yet another holograph sample to consider in your meditations — here’s the earliest inscription I personally got from Kent Harrington, during a signing for his second novel in Kayo … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Line v. No Line
Cordelia Willis, who tipped Kent Harrington — both pictured above — off to some crime lab info for Last Ferry Home, joined in on the food and talk in Street, September 21. What was the ridiculous description I noticed recently … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit
Tagged Autographs, Connie Willis, Cordelia Willis, Douglas Adams, George RR Martin, Kent Harrington, Street Restaurant
Frisco Beat: Kent Harrington, Signatory
Image above: Kent Harrington (with Lynn behind the bar) in one of my favorite restaurants, Street on Polk, on Saturday September 21. We got there as soon as the doors opened and had the place to ourselves for a few minutes, … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit
Tagged Autographs, Book Collecting, Kent Harrington, Kevin Cook, Street Restaurant
Frisco Beat: Feel the Bern
Generally speaking, I wouldn’t bother with politics on the blog — mostly because I’m not in the grip of one of the prevailing derangement delusions. Hammett was a communist. (Or, technically, a rich communist, which makes the whole commie thing … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, News
Tagged Bernie Sanders, John Konstin, John's Grill, Nancy Pelosi, TCM Backlot, Willie Brown
