January 13. S41 E91. Champions Wildcard Game 1.
Double Jeopardy Round.
Category: People of the Book.
$800 clew:
Private dicks Sam & Miles; Sexy, deceitful client Miss Wonderley; Acquisitive Caspar Gutman
Contestant buzzes in:
“What is The Maltese Falcon?”
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 see any scenario where they don’t just keep getting heavier. Hell, I was lucky I could bounce back for a few more years after triple bypass surgery in 2018.
In the 45 year period I was pounding the mean streets, the only year I did nothing at all was 2020, thanks to the COVID lockdowns. I’ll give myself that one — I remember circa 1982 when I did fifteen walks in one month, so maybe it all balances out.
But I also sat out 2023 and 2024 — perhaps COVID finally got me, or something else. Who knows?
Time to call it.
I suppose I could still do talks, and now have that many more hours to work on books. Got three done last year, released between Halloween and December 31st. I have three more lined up for the first half of 2025. And an as yet somewhat vague plan to get some of the history of The San Francisco Suicide Club into print or ePrint.
On December 26, 2014 the first of my eBook LitCrit MegaPacks dropped into the marketplace. Collecting in one place for the first time the critical anthologies The Dark Barbarian (1984) and the follow-up from twenty years later, The Barbaric Triumph (2004).
The Dark Barbarian That Towers Over All, then, was the thirtieth anniversary publication in that symbolic run of Robert E. Howard criticism, adding enough material to fill up a third actual book.
For the tenth anniversary of Towers Over All — or would it be more importantly the fortieth anniversary of The Dark Barbarian? — we return with a distinct second edition.
Behind the jazzed-up cover the text has been scoured, resulting in some changes and corrections. Updated formatting optimizes the experience for the newest eBook readers. And I close it out with an all-new afterword — “Barbaric Decad” — bringing the saga up-to-date, for the moment.
Jeopardy! October 22, 2024. S41 E32.
In the Final Jeopardy round the category Detective Authors.
“For much of the 1920s, he lived on Eddy in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.”
“Who is I had fun,” responded one contender.
“Who is Mosley?” replied another.
“Who is Hammett?” wrote the third. That guy won $18,799.
Only a month after dropping a Hammett clew into the mix, Jeopardy! quickly pulled the creator of Sam Spade out of the trick bag once more — S40 E210 for June 28, 2024.
The first round. $400 clew in the category Literary Geography:
“Spade paid his fare & left the taxicab”; this city’s “night fog, thick, clammy, and penetrant, blurred the street”
The seven-day champ buzzed in and asked, “What is Los Angeles?”
Host Ken Jennings said, “No, I’m sorry.”
The other two contestants did not risk an answer.
Kind of sad.
After the surprise appearance on the spinoff show Jeopardy! Masters on May 17 earlier this year, Hammett quickly returned to his old Jeopardy! stomping grounds.
May 29, 2024. S40 E188.
Category: Don’t Stop Retrieving.
$1000 clew:
“In a 1930 novel Mr. Cairo asks Sam Spade to retrieve this ‘statuette, the black figure of a bird.'”
The answer?
“What is the Maltese Falcon?”
Yeah, that’s the answer all right.
After Jeopardy! had their full category blowout of Hammett clews in January, who knew what might happen?
Could that have been it, a swansong to send him off into the used-up clew pile by an exhausted clew crew?
Months began to trickle by, and then as I was watching one of the shows where Jeopardy! expands its empire, Hammett came back in swinging.
I’ve never had much interest in College Jeopardy! or Kid’s Jeopardy! or Math Nerd Jeopardy! or Sports Jeopardy! (well, no interest in math or sports, but it’s hard to see Hammett showing up, unless they have him betting on a big game, which he did).
Jeopardy! Masters, however, I’ll watch that one, see some of the champs of yesteryear return to the podiums.
On Friday May 17, 2024 — S2E7 of the Semifinals — the category was Book Noir.
The amount was $200. The puzzler:
“Chapter 2 of ‘The Maltese Falcon’ has a 100-word description of this man rolling a cigarette.”
Answer: “Who is Sam Spade?”
Of course.
As long as Jeopardy! has clews there’ll always be Sam Spade.
I’ve had this one hidden away almost all year, waiting to ease under the Xmas tree. . . .
Or:
Would you believe I was so daunted when I saw it that I froze solid? Dropped as if I had been pole-axed?
Stunned, I was stunned.
The usual Hammett on Jeopardy! bits are short, fast. This thing was like the War and Peace of Hammett on Jeopardy!
In past coverage I’ve mentioned how Hammett is perfect for the show. He’s got books. Movies. Famous characters. Personal history with Lillian Hellman, and Joe McCarthy. Two World Wars. San Francisco. New York. Hollywood.
But here for the first time — S40 E100 for January 26, 2024 — they offered up an entire Dashiell Hammett Category in Double Jeopardy!
The first clew selected was for $1200. Immediately, it didn’t look good for Hammett ever getting another full set.
“This LA-based hard-boiled novelist said Hammett’s work took ‘murder out of the Venetian vase & dropped it into the alley.'”
First answer: “Who is Mickey Spillane?” Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Second contestant beeps in — but doesn’t have a guess.
Third contestant doesn’t even beep.
Chandler! Raymond Chandler! Easy as hell! Jeez, if none of them knew Chandler, could they know anything about Hammett?
Second clew selected. $400. “Hammett is famous for his 1930 novel about this coveted title object that was made by Turkish slaves in the castle of St. Angelo.”
Answer: “What is The Maltese Falcon?” Hey-hey.
Third clew selected. $1600. “Many of Hammett’s stories take place in this inner-city San Francisco neighborhood that shares its name with a cut of beef.”
Answer: “”What is the Tenderloin?” (Jeez, you get that one, but you don’t get Chandler???)
Fourth clew. $2000. A picture, and “Hammett’s long time love, this playwright of The Little Foxes was happy to hear she was the inspiration for Nora Charles.”
Answer: “Who is Hellman?”
Fifth and final clew. $800. “In 1953 Hammett went before a committee chaired by this man & was asked about his association with the Communist Party.”
Answer: “Who is McCarthy?”
From a halting start to a freight train, those Hammett clews barked like a roscoe unloading into a crowd of yeggs.
Nice.
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 is the eBook LitCrit Megapack Death Lit — a selection of essays and reviews from my fifty years as a critic and commentator in the blood-soaked arenas of horror and the supernatural, mystery and detection. 1974-2024.
I think the material gathered is what they call a Body of Work.
Charles Willeford, Stephen King, Russell Kirk, San Francisco Mysteries, Lovecraft — among the many topics covered between 1974 and today.
I even present my 2002 essay “Collecting Arkham House Ephemera,” which goes into rich detail on how I became obsessed enough to eventually turn out Arkham House Ephemera: The Classic Years 1937-1973.
Brian Wallace popped me notice of a big auction of Raymond Chandler manuscripts and personal items, “under the hammer of Doyle” — on December 6.
That gives you a few days to scrape some loot together and prepare to jump into the fray.
The typewriter looks to be the big item, and drafts of never-published early fantasy stories the author of The Big Sleep tried out. I probably ought to get in on it and go after his scarf. By chance I already have a pretty good collection of Author’s Scarves — Hammett and Clark Ashton Smith. I think I’ve got my toe in that game, anyway, but for all I know some collector out there has hundreds, thousands, of Author Scarves. You don’t hear about it much, I admit.
My favorite tidbit mentioned as going up for grabs:
Chandler’s two-page typed list of 46 ‘Things I Hate’, including ‘Golf Talk’, ‘Early Rising’, and ‘Novels about people who can’t make any money’ (estimate: $600 – $800)
But the scarf is estimated to bid out cheaper.
