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: Wetjen Returns
I’d almost suspect that Brian Leno has gone all lazy on me, since he hasn’t popped in a new post in over a month — my god, does he expect me to handle all the Mean Streets action by myself? … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Adventure, Albert Richard Wetjen, Autographs, Book Collecting, Brian Leno, Frederick W. Skiff, Jim Tully, John Gilbert, W. F. Hopson
Rediscovered: The Bantam Docs
Earlier today Brian Leno was claiming that he’s “no expert on Doc Savage.” Yeah, sure, he’s not Will Murray, but he has contributed to Big Book of Bronze. And at the end of last year he was very happy when … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Big Book of Bronze, Book Collecting, Brian Leno, Doc Savage, Hopalong Cassidy, Lester Dent, The Shadow, Will Murray
Rediscovered: Lester Dent
Autograph Hound Saturday again and our resident Autograph Hound, in the person of Brian Leno, hauls out the very latest acquisition to his sprawling spread of John Hancocks. This round he presents another Lester Dent item (you may recall his … Continue reading
Rediscovered: The Romantic Count von Cosel
Well, maybe The Maltese Falcon isn’t the sickest love story ever. . . . Late last year Brian Leno got to poking around in the Unusual and popped some stuff my way, which I realized might not be quite appropriate … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, Count Karl Tanzler von Cosel, Fantastic Adventures, Key West, Les Cole, Ray Palmer, Valentine
Sinister Cinema: Scary Monsters
Brian Leno continues to “splash the field,” sneaking articles into mags hither and yon — and this time he gets into a publication that has won numerous Rondo Hatton awards. Brian and I decided that the only award we’d really … Continue reading
Mort: Yvette Mimieux
Autograph Hound Saturday and Brian Leno pulls an image from his collection as a gesture of “respect for Yvette Mimieux, who died on the 17th.” Struggling with a Wellsian Morlock from the beloved 1960 George Pal production of The Time … Continue reading
Posted in Film
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, George Pal, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, Yvette Mimieux
Hammett: Another Top Tenner
Brian Leno let me know that an Op story cracked The Top Ten list for Library of America’s Story of the Week feature in 2021. “The Gutting of Couffignal.” One of the yarns in Hammett’s white-hot burst of Op action … Continue reading
Hammett: From Ape-Wrangler to Town-Tamer
The other day Evan Lewis tracked down another “lost” movie version of Red Harvest, that would have followed the “lost” version starring Alan Ladd at Paramount — Ladd’s being juggled in 1941 and this next version getting a big blurb … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film
Tagged Alan Ladd, Brian Leno, Bruce Cabot, Evan Lewis, Fay Wray, John Wayne, Paramount, Red Harvest
Rediscovered: Batgirl at $11,850 Off
Got a note in from Brian Leno immediately after he read Tom Krabacher’s report on the Windy City pulp convention, where the issue of Weird Tales with Margaret Brundage’s “Batgirl” cover went at auction for $11,000 plus 10% buyer’s premium. … Continue reading
Rediscovered: More Burnham
Autograph Hound Super-Sunday and the intrepid John Hancock Hunter Brian Leno drops in a note to say, “I know I’ve written about Burnham on your blog but I don’t think I ever showed you his signature. “This book he inscribed … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, Frederick Russell Burnham, Henry Fairfield Osborn
