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
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Essays and Reviews Selected from Fifty Years of Writing 1974–2024
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Tag Archives: August Derleth
Rediscovered: Return of the Logo!
On July 29 I found a little packet in the mailbox, with the completely unexpected second addenda to John D. Haefele’s working bibliography of August Derleth enclosed. The bibliography appeared in 2006 as the third entry in The Cimmerian Library’s … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged August Derleth, Autographs, Esoteric Order of Dagon, Hesperia Press cat butt, John D. Haefele, The Cimmerian Library
Two-Gun Bob: The Best and the Worst
The discussion of pastiche writing the other day — and how even the original authors didn’t always excel with their classic characters — spurred the noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook to send in additional thoughts: Well, if we’re … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, REH
Tagged Arthur F. Hillman, August Derleth, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fantasy Review, Kevin Cook, Sherlock Holmes
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
Rediscovered: 50th Anniversaries
And as an inevitable footnote to the celebration of Donald Sidney-Fryer’s 1971 book Songs and Sonnets Atlantean reaching its fiftieth anniversary, obviously the death of his publisher August Derleth only weeks after release would have occurred fifty years ago, as … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Arkham House, August Derleth, Deuce Richardson, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Lovecraft, Songs & Sonnets Atlantean
Rediscovered: Haefele Sleuthing the Christmas Card Caper
Someone somewhere sometime may have knocked out more ephemera than August Derleth, but who it might have been I can’t imagine. John D. Haefele and I are beginning to poke around on our book listing all the Arkham House ephemera … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Songs and Sonnets Atlantean at 50
On this date in 1971 Donald Sidney-Fryer, Last of the Courtly Poets, inscribed the earliest copy of his “Little Booke” Songs & Sonnets Atlantean that I have dug up. Fifty years ago. The last title from Arkham House released under … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged Arkham House, August Derleth, Autographs, Book Collecting, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Facsimile Dustjackets LLC, Firsts, Songs & Sonnets Atlantean
Rediscovered: Arcane Arkham Arch-Collectors Corner No. 4
As is his wont, Brian Leno was moping around on eBay the other day and noticed a copy of the Arkham House edition of A. E. Coppard’s Fearful Pleasures — it sold for $108.27. The trick angle was that a … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Every Copy of an Edition
I think I had my longtime pal Donald Sidney-Fryer really going for about two or three weeks late last year, when I told him I was thinking about collecting the entire print run — a reported 2045 copies — of … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Don Webb, in for the Memorial Moment
Just noticed that today Don Webb tossed up a review of A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos on Amazon. He explains why he suddenly covers John D. Haefele’s previous book at the end: August Derleth was an unimaginative but professional … Continue reading
Rediscovered: The Arkham Collector
The maelstrom of Arkham House ephemera collecting swept me up again, with John D. Haefele clinging onto the plunging raft by my side. Some weeks that’s been all I could think about, bidding on items I didn’t have in the … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Arkham House, August Derleth, Firsts, John D. Haefele, Paul Dobish, The Arkham Collector
