Just got a note from William Denton, of RARA-AVIS fame, who says, “You probably won’t remember, but in February 2008 you very generously took me on a solo Hammett tour, including going up into Bill Arney’s apartment, which made the trip out there one of the best of my life.”
Of course I remember, but if I forget I blurbed it on this website at the time.
Bill brings me up to date on some Mean Streets stuff: “I recently got my PI license and have been reading about PIs. I was reading Tink Thompson’s book Gumshoe and was interested to see how much Hammett talk there was in it, especially due to David Fechheimer. If I’d seen Fechheimer’s name before, I’d forgotten. It’s remarkable how strong an effect Hammett had on people that he inspired them to become PIs — me included, though I’m not going to move to California, or even change careers.
“Fechheimer had no Wikipedia entry, so I made one. If there are any other secondary or tertiary sources you’d recommend for improving the article, please let me know. Feel free to spread the word around — the more people that see it, the better; I hope it’ll get attention from others who will beef it up even more.”
