Search donherron.com
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: Lit
Rediscovered: Haefele Sleuthing the Christmas Card Caper
Someone somewhere sometime may have knocked out more ephemera than August Derleth, but who it might have been I can’t imagine. John D. Haefele and I are beginning to poke around on our book listing all the Arkham House ephemera … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Songs and Sonnets Atlantean at 50
On this date in 1971 Donald Sidney-Fryer, Last of the Courtly Poets, inscribed the earliest copy of his “Little Booke” Songs & Sonnets Atlantean that I have dug up. Fifty years ago. The last title from Arkham House released under … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged Arkham House, August Derleth, Autographs, Book Collecting, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Facsimile Dustjackets LLC, Firsts, Songs & Sonnets Atlantean
Rediscovered: The First of Many, Bumped Off by Haggard
Kevin Cook, noted book and pulp collector, provides a footnote to his recent musings: The adventure novel King Solomon’s Mines was not H. Rider Haggard’s first book, but it introduced the protagonist Allan Quatermain. In between King Solomon’s Mines and Allan Quatermain he … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Wittgenstein Dug Norbie
Kent Harrington pops in a link to a CrimeReads article about how the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wolfed down a steady diet of hardboiled American pulp crime fiction. Not something your average guy on the street would be expecting to hear, … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Crimereads, E. Hoffmann Price, Evan Lewis, Kent Harrington, literary suicides, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Norbert Davis
Rediscovered: Great Scott!
You want to talk about Sir Walter Scott suddenly being in the air? Kevin Cook stumbled over his name during his current reread of Machen’s Far Off Things and then noticed coverage of the flick Ivanhoe in the new issue … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Brian Leno, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Kevin Cook, Simon and Kirby, Sir Walter Scott
Rediscovered: More Musings on Haggard
Every week or three the noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook starts mulling over some bookish matter, and often enough it leads him to H. Rider Haggard: It’s weird sometimes how references to one book or author show up … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Arthur A. Nelson, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard, Kevin Cook, Sir Walter Scott, Tim Willocks
Rediscovered: Arcane Arkham Arch-Collectors Corner No. 4
As is his wont, Brian Leno was moping around on eBay the other day and noticed a copy of the Arkham House edition of A. E. Coppard’s Fearful Pleasures — it sold for $108.27. The trick angle was that a … Continue reading
Rediscovered: The Eklund Bookplate
I tossed out The Tamony Bookplate found in one of my Knopf yellowback Machens the other day. Among other especially interesting plates I’ve ended up with, I was telling Brian Leno about one I remembered with a skeleton, a road, … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: A “Lost Book” Mystery
Every couple of years or so I get asked about a book someone has read and forgotten the title of — almost always a book that is a mystery set in San Francisco. Hey, you do the seminal statement, people … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Is Haefele’s First Book on the Block?
Currently on eBay from Gunnison of Adventure House — with a Buy It Now tag of $100 — you’ll find what may be John D. Haefele’s first book. Copy no. 41 of 45 numbered copies. He’s not sure — Haefele, … Continue reading
