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: Tour
Tour: 45 Years — 1977-2022
Man, it would have been swell to get to the 50 Year mark leading the Dashiell Hammett Tour, but I guess I started in just a little too late. The gumshoes are willing but years weigh heavy. And I can’t … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Death Lit on the Block
If you picked up my most recent book Arkham House Ephemera: The Classic Years 1937-1973, I am here to slip you the word that no longer is it the latest title to leap to life. The newest of the new … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, DMac, Film, Frisco, Lit, News, REH, SFSC, Tour, Willeford
Tagged Arkham House Ephemera The Classic Years 1937-1973, Book Collecting, Death Lit Essays and Reviews 1974-2024
Hammett: Prowling Burritt Alley
I guess it was in 2021 when I shot some footage with Duane and Rachel Anderson of Travel by the Book TV. Took them awhile, but they’ve got about 20 minutes now up on YouTube, touring Hammett sites in San … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, News, Tour
Tagged Burritt alley, Dashiell Hammett Street, Duane and Rachel Anderson, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Travel by the Book TV
Tour: Just Over Twenty Years Ago. . .
Our pal Mike Humbert sent a couple of images winging around the net, with the info line: “Two pics from me taking the Dashiell Hammett tour for the first time, October 27, 2002.” Twenty years ago and change. Image at … Continue reading
Noir: More Murderous Monday
On Saturday July 23 I pulled on the worn gumshoes and led a group by appointment up and down the mean streets, and a fun parade it turned out to be. A guy named Alec Binnie arranged the deal. He … Continue reading
Tour: Inquiries Welcome
For the Dashiell Hammett Tour I have drifted over largely into doing Tours by Appointment. Kind of inevitable. Easier. Better money. After 45 years, bound to happen. And I still meet people who ask me how many times a day … Continue reading
Hammett: More Dashiells
I did a quick Dashiell Hammett Tour by appointment on Saturday the 18th. Initially the guy had Monday the 13th in mind — you know, the day one of those atmospheric rivers unloaded the agua on the mean streets all … 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
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
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
