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: News
Rediscovered: The Block Begins to Creak Under the Weight of All Those Comics. . .
Now here’s some news. Brian Leno let me know today that he has decided to sell a chunk off his horde of stuff. For years he’s been hawking wares on eBay, but I think of most of those listings as … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Get Yer Shiel Here
Aha. I’ve been waiting for this book — although technically I don’t really need it. You do. Beating the likes of Random House and Little Brown and their ilk to the punch, Hippocampus Press just gathered under one set of … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Arthur Machen, Book Collecting, Harold Billings, Hippocampus Press, John D. Squires, Lovecraft, M. P. Shiel, Scott Connors
Mort: Dennis Ray McMillan
People asked, so I dug a little deeper into the recent death of publisher Dennis McMillan. I first heard he died on May 1, but update that to May 5 — as announced in this message on the Dennis Facebook … Continue reading
Mort: DMac & DSF
Man. A Couple of Really Bad Days at Black Rock. A few days after the fact I heard from fellow Posse McMillan member Kent Harrington that our pal, publisher Dennis McMillan, had passed away on Friday May 1st. Word as … Continue reading
Posted in DMac, Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged Death Lit Essays and Reviews 1974-2024, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Kent Harrington, Measures of Poison, Posse McMillan
Rediscovered: Shiel and Floyd and an Absurd Adventure of Dennis McMillan
Just noticed a quick email from 2022 where Brian Leno told me: Came across a letter where Lawrence of Arabia — in his T. E. Shaw alias — tells a bookseller he will take a copy of Shiel’s The Purple … Continue reading
Posted in DMac, Lit, News
Tagged Brian Leno, Death Lit Essays and Reviews 1974-2024, Eddie Little, Floyd Salas, John D. Squires, Lawrence of Arabia, M. P. Shiel, Steve Eng
Hammett: A Jeopardy! Infiltration
Jeopardy! used a Hammett clew less than a week ago, but the legend and lore can muscle its way in any time. S42 E127, March 3,2026. The Final Jeopardy! shoot-out question in the category 20th Century Movie Memorabilia: In 2025 … Continue reading
Hammett: The Jutting Jaw of Jeopardy!
Once more the clew crew at Jeopardy! dips into the deep trough of the life and career of Dashiell Hammett to summon up hard-boiled ghosts of the past. Seas42 Ep124. February 26, 2026. First round. $400 clew. Category: First Lines … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Postcards from Sauk/Arkham
Brian Leno has decided to throw his collection of postcards promoting August Derleth and his home in Sauk City, Wisconsin onto the market. Search eBay for “August Derleth Signed Postcards” — though I guess technically only one card is signed. … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Arkham House Ephemera The Classic Years 1937-1973, August Derleth, Autographs, Brian Leno
Rediscovered: Haefele Clarifies
In the recent post about The Due to the Death Series which John D. Haefele and I wrestled with, when we were wrapping up Arkham House Ephemera: The Classic Years, I quoted Haefele as saying that The Due to’s were … Continue reading
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
