Randal Brandt of the Bancroft Library popped in the image above — he’s at the podium giving a talk for Cal’s Homecoming events on Saturday October 10. On the screen behind him you’ll see the cover of the 1982 edition of the Dashiell Hammett Tour book.
“My Homecoming talk (the space was HUGE!) went well. Here’s a shot from the event, with the slide from the Origin Story section.”
As I say in an intro to the essay “Collecting San Francisco Mysteries” as featured in Death Lit:
Near the end of the article I report that I have retired from the fray, donating my assembled collection to the Bancroft Library, accessible to anyone interested in some criminous research. But then what happened?
Bancroft librarian Randal Brandt, another big fan of David Dodge, decided to put up a website devoted to San Francisco area mysteries, keeping it updated as new titles continued to appear. And gradually he expanded the scope to cover all California mysteries, so Bancroft probably needed to add lots more shelving.
Randal thus is explaining how the kernel of my donation of San Francisco Mysteries led on to the next stage, collecting LA mysteries, Fresno mysteries — the works.
But as I say in Death Lit, “Collecting everything isn’t necessarily bad — so many try — but I prefer the specialized quest myself. If you want a new hobby, I suggest sticking with the classic that kicked it all off. . . .”
