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: Brian Leno
Two-Gun Bob: Ed Gobbett
Brian Leno sent me this news yesterday: Just had a hunch to look Ed Gobbett up and see he died some months back. He’s proudly holding his copy of A Gent from Bear Creek — look at all those pulps … Continue reading
Rediscovered: In the Annals of Sword-and-Sorcery
Brian Leno, trapped in his Last Redoubt in Bismarck, North Dakota, nonetheless managed to pop a review to me in my Last Redoubt — the good old sanctum sanctorum — which I’ll toss out to people stuck in their Last … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Even in Bismarck
Yep, no one better positioned to appreciate the COVID-19 outbreak than science fiction fans. It’s like living the la vida loca of a Zombie Apocalypse without the severe downside of rampaging zombies. But I would have thought if anyone I … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Bitten by a Radioactive John Hancock
When laying out his origin story as a collector of signed books the other day, Kevin Cook told me not to bother using the details about hanging out with Karl Edward Wagner, watching the local college team on the tube, … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Autographs, Basil Rathbone, Brian Leno, Clifford Simak, Frank Buck, Harlan Ellison, Karl Edward Wagner, Kevin Cook
Rediscovered: Chinese Gordon’s Last Stand
Yesterday’s Autograph Hound Saturday was pretty cool — so what’s up for Autograph Hound Super-Sunday? Brian Leno has been keeping his eye on the calendar, too — 135 years slips past so quickly! Adventure, John Hancocks, Last Stands. . . … Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, General Charles George Gordon, George W. Joy, Siege of Khartoum
Rediscovered: The Self-Driving Car in 1963
I pretty much knew doing the little article on David (Kavin’s World) Mason for the new Bill Breiding zine would rekindle my interest in researching that largely forgotten San Francisco writer. Stumbling across my file of info from the early … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Max Z
While I don’t proselytize for it every day, I am a big fan of the Max Brooks novel World War Z — not so much for the movie they named after it. Brian Leno nabbed me a couple of Brooks … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Zombiemeister
Autograph Hound Super-Sunday once again, and do we have anything super to offer? I think so. Yesterday we pinned the label of neat-nik on Kevin Cook, preferring as he does nice clean signatures you can actually read. I think Autograph … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Lighting Up with Lester Dent
You know Brian Leno. The guy’s got a competitive edge. He’s already duked it out mano a mano with Kevin Cook a few times with samples from their autograph collections, notably the Cornell Woolrich face-off back in August. When Kevin … Continue reading
Two-Gun Bob: Top Ten, Baby
Brian Leno keeps his thumb on the pulse, and just popped in the news that Robert E. Howard’s landmark Cthulhu Mythos yarn “The Black Stone” made the cut for Library of America’s ten most read stories of the year — … Continue reading
