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
Tag Archives: Black Mask
Hammett: The Original “Death”
As announced, Terry Zobeck is on board to let Hammett fans know exactly which words and sentences Frederic Dannay cut from the original magazine texts as he collected Hammett’s short stories into digest-sized paperbacks — in effect, Terry is reconstructing the closest … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, Lit
Tagged "Death and Company", Black Mask, Frederic Dannay, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, The Return of the Continental Op, Zobeck Series One
Death Lit: The Black (Mask) Bird
While I’m not doing a regular crime and mystery review column any more, and you’d have a very hard time talking me into the idea again, I still manage to knock out seven or eight standalone reviews every year in … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News, Tour
Tagged AHMM, Big Read, Black Mask, Cornell Woolrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, Falcon from Knopf, Jo Gar, Otto Penzler, pure texts, Raoul Whitfield, Raymond Chandler
Hammett: The Ripper
On the tour I sometimes use the 1929 story “Fly Paper” for a quick introduction to the Continental Op stories, always getting into the Op’s showdown with the gangster Babe McCloor. I always mention the fact of arsenic poisoning being a key … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Redonda!
I’m confident it was my pal Steve Eng who brought M. P. Shiel fully to my attention some thirty years ago. Like anyone else interested in horror and fantastic literature, I’d have come across the name already, courtesy at least … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, DMac, Frisco, Lit
Tagged "The Gutting of Couffignal", Arthur Machen, Black Mask, Book Collecting, Dylan Thomas, Hammett Tour Book, Henry Miller, John D. Squires, John Gawsworth, Lovecraft, M. P. Shiel, Redonda, Steve Eng
Hammett: Playing the Sap
Take out your copy of Jo Hammett’s Dashiell Hammett: A Daughter Remembers. Turn to page 34. We’re going to be dealing with the bottom photo on that page. If you don’t have a copy of the book, this post spotlights a … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco
Tagged "Fly Paper", Black Mask, Jack Black, Jo Hammett, Morning Call, Pinkerton's, Raymond Chandler, The Big Knockover, William S. Burroughs, You Can't Win
News: June-July 2010
NOTHING SHAKING ON THE MEAN STREETS Or, to put it another way, Don is doing miscellaneous summer stuff the next two months — he gets that way every time a new edition of his Hammett tour book comes out. No … Continue reading
News: January 2010
YEAR 33 Another year, Don’s thirty-third on the mean streets, another round of bleak noir rains rolling over the old town. No extra tours are set for this month, but you can get the new edition of The Dashiell Hammett … Continue reading
Posted in DMac, Film, News, Tour
Tagged Black Mask, Castro Theatre, Eddie Muller, Falcon from Knopf, Hammett Tour Book, Kindle, Noir City, Otto Penzler, Pulps, USA Today, Valentine, Vince Emery, Wall Street Journal
News: January 2008
STAYING IN OUT OF THE RAIN No extra tours set for this month, but if you want to hear Don offer a few opinions on noir and hard-boiled fiction while staying dry at the same time, come on down to … Continue reading
News: December 2007
THIRTY YEARS DOWN Other than some groups by appointment, no gumshoes are hitting the pavement of the mean streets this month, as thirty years eases quietly past — with year thirty-one to follow. The plans by Vince Emery to publish … Continue reading
Posted in DMac, News, Willeford
Tagged Black Mask, Hammett Tour Book, Measures of Poison, Noir Con, Vince Emery
