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
Rediscovered: Walt Coburn
Autograph Hound Saturday once more, and we’ll allow Brian Leno to wax nostalgic (Ubi Sunt! Ubi Sunt!) for a moment. Here’s Brian on the thrilling days of yesteryear, or childhood — that sort of thing: “I believe I’ve told you a … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Adventure, Autographs, Brian Leno, Harold S. Goldsmith, Harry Steeger, literary suicides, Walt Coburn
Rediscovered: ERB — Name/ Place/ Date
Brian Leno jumps aboard with a cameo appearance in today’s Autograph Hound Super-Sunday tribute to Edgar Rice Burroughs. The regret expressed in ERB’s last months in re: “I am so ashamed of my writing since I have been ill. I used to have a … Continue reading
Rediscovered: George Allan England Ne Plus Ultra
Autograph Hound Saturday again, and Kevin Cook is back at the wheel. He notes that Brian Leno, wily John Hancock hunter, took him a little bit by surprise the past weekends: “I have to admit that I was completely focusing on books … Continue reading
Remembered: Wild Bill
My pal, the gambler Brian Leno, just gave me a head’s up: “Today it’s 143 years since Wild Bill Hickok cashed in his chips.” Gone. Not forgotten, by any measure.
Rediscovered: Paul Stahr
For Autograph Hound Super-Sunday what John Hancock could our own maniacal Autograph Hound Brian Leno pull from his trove? You may recall that a couple of weekends back he presented the signature of pulpster Anthony M. Rud — if you … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Mundy
Brian Leno confesses, “I have no autographed copies of Talbot Mundy volumes, but I do have the signed check presented here. “I started reading Mundy after Robert E. Howard and once, many years ago, I came upon five or six old hardbacks … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Lamb
Obviously the baseline reference point for today’s Autograph Hound Saturday posts from Brian Leno is none other than Robert E. Howard. And why not? Like his pal H.P. Lovecraft, REH is the central sun around which other literary planets orbit. … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Frank Harris — His Own John Hancock
Last Autograph Hound weekend Kevin Cook dragged the Irish author Frank Harris into the foment via a book inscribed to the author of My Life and Loves from no less than Tod Robbins. The association interest was immense, for those … Continue reading
Posted in Boxing, Lit, REH
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, Frank harris, Jack the Ripper, Kevin Cook, Tod Robbins
Rediscovered: “You Dirty, Slimy Freaks!”
We all remember last Autograph Hound weekend when Brian Leno laid out a hand with a trump card or two (signed, of course) in the mix, to keep him in the game with the John Hancocks spread out the week before by noted … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, Frank harris, Freaks, Kevin Cook, Tod Browning, Tod Robbins
Rediscovered: James v. Jim
Autograph Hound Saturday again, and Kevin Cook is back at the wheel, giving Brian Leno a breather from digging through binder after binder of autos. In our discussions of signed books, Kevin asked me if I had noticed that James … Continue reading
