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: “Albert Pastor at Home” and “His Brother’s Keeper”
Our frequent Guest Blogger Tenderloin Terry Zobeck returns — finishing off his examination of the first set of pure text Hammett stories he had in his files, to see what sort of blue pencil Frederic Dannay put them to as he assembled ten paperback … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged "Albert Paster at Home", "Death and Company", "His Brother's Keeper", "It", Black Mask, Collier's, Esquire, Frederic Dannay, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, Zobeck Series One
Hammett: Another “Clew”
The last time Hammett’s 1924 Op story “The Tenth Clew” got a mention on this site was when we linked to a bit where Mike Nevins covered some odd editing Frederic Dannay did on the ending in the 1940s. I figured … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, News
Tagged "The Tenth Clew", Black Mask, Frederic Dannay, John D. Squires, Mike Nevins, newspaper action, Senator Joseph McCarthy, Terry Zobeck, The Fat Man, Vince Emery
Hammett: Before Dannay. . .
Our frequent Guest Blogger Terry Zobeck returns with a fresh discovery in his investigation into how Frederic Dannay edited Hammett’s short stories for paperback publication, decades ago. Hey, you jump into the pool, you can dive deeper — and deeper. Take it, … Continue reading
Hammett: “One Hour”
Guest Blogger Terry Zobeck returns with another look into the edits made by Fred Dannay, and this time finds that the blue pencil smote lightly back in 1944! Plus he discovers yet another “pure text” Hammett story available in a modern … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged "One Hour", "The Gutting of Couffignal", Black Mask, EQMM, Frederic Dannay, Pulps, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, Tony Goodstone, Zobeck Series One
Hammett: “The New Racket”
Terry Zobeck kicks off another month for us here at Up and Down These Mean Streets with an entry in his series of pure text corrections for Hammett’s short fiction — contrasting the blue pencil work editor Frederic Dannay was making on the … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged "The Judge Laughed Last", "The New Racket", Black Mask, EQMM, Frederic Dannay, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, The Adventures of Sam Spade, Zobeck Series One
Hammett: Ode to Op
Damon Sasser just popped me a link to “This Ain’t Sherlock Holmes,” a nice tribute to Hammett’s Op tales on the Vintage Crime website — written by Scott Montgomery, who may be the same Scott Montgomery I met during the secret noir … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News
Tagged Ace Atkins, Black Mask, Carroll John Daly, Hammett Tour Book, Peter Maravelis, Pulps, Scott Montgomery
Hammett: “Dan Odams”
Terry Zobeck returns with another Guest Blog detailing the edits Frederic Dannay made as he gathered Hammett’s short stories into a series of paperbacks over half a century ago — editorial cuts and changes which have been perpetuated in editions of … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged "The Man Who Killed Dan Odams", Black Mask, Cap Shaw, Frederic Dannay, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, Zobeck Series One
Hammett: “Angel,” Resurrected
Our now regular Guest Blogger Terry Zobeck returns for another installment — following “This King Business” and “Death and Company” — detailing the various changes made by Frederic Dannay when he was editing Hammett for paperback. I couldn’t help but … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco
Tagged "The Second Story Angel", A Man Named Thin, Black Mask, EQMM, Frederic Dannay, Terry Zobeck, Zobeck Series One
Hammett: Have Pen, Will Edit
Terry Zobeck returns for another Guest Blog spot, to kick off the month of June. He plans on more posts on pure texts to follow his detailed surveys of “This King Business” and “Death and Company.” This time he looks into a … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, Lit
Tagged 620 Eddy, Black Mask, H. Bedford-Jones, Hammett Tour Book, Pulps, Terry Zobeck, Writer's Digest
Hammett: More on “Death”
Prompted by Terry Zobeck’s post on “Death and Company,” I pulled out my Dell Mapback edition of The Return of the Continental Op and checked through all his corrections. Took a little bit of work, since Terry’s page and line numbers refer to … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, Lit, News, Tour
Tagged "Death and Company", "Mike Alec or Rufus", "The Creeping Siamese", "The Farewell Murder", "The Thin Man", "Women Politics and Murder", 408 Turk, 620 Eddy, 891 Post, 895 Post, Bill Arney, Black Mask, Cap Shaw, Dell Mapbacks, Frederic Dannay, Hammett Tour Book, Pru Whitfield, Pulps, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, The Glass Key, The Return of the Continental Op
