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About DonHerron.com
In 1977 Don Herron began leading The Dashiell Hammett Tour, now the longest-running literary tour in the nation. On this site you’ll find information on current walks — dates, where to meet, arranging tours by appointment — plus a hard-boiled blog with news, reviews of books and film, and a dash of noir.
The latest and greatest edition to self-guide you up and down the mean streets.
Willeford: The Book
Includes the first “Mr. Hunt” story, “Knives in the Dark.”
Tag Archives: City Lights
Frisco Beat: At Least One Guy Hits the Century Mark
Doing a quick check of the net, it looks as if Lawrence Ferlinghetti turns 100 years old today. The event could have slipped past my radar, except a few days ago I got a deluxe one-sheet poem from D. S. … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged City Lights, D.S. Black, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Nancy Peters
Frisco Beat: And the Speakers Are
The celebration for the 25th anniversary of the literary streets is on for 2 p.m. in Jack Kerouac alley, next to City Lights, on Sunday October 6. The roster of speakers (five minutes each, max, or so I’m told) will … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: Those Literary Streets
When we hoof up to Dashiell Hammett Street on the tour, I usually provide a thumbnail history of how it got named in honor of the author of The Maltese Falcon — alongside eleven other streets renamed in honor of various authors … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: City Lights Hits 60
It’s up against the Hammett Tour I’m doing this coming Sunday with Dashiel (and the ghost of Dashiell, I guess), but what the hell — City Lights Bookstore making it to 60 years on the mean streets is worth a … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit, News, Tour
Tagged Allen Ginsberg, City Lights, Jack Kerouac alley, The Cacophony Society, William S. Burroughs
Hammett: The Big 88
My spies out there in the world, always keeping an eye on the news, have alerted me to the latest honor for the author who makes The Dashiell Hammett Tour the rollicking fun ride that it is: Hammett’s Red Harvest has … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News, SFSC
Tagged "Zigzags of Treachery", Allen Ginsberg, Becky London, Ben Franklin, Brian Leno, City Lights, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Jack London, Jan Kerouac, Jo Hammett, John Carter, Library of Congress, literary graves, Randy Shilts, Ray Bradbury, Red Harvest, Zane Grey
Frisco Beat: A Century of Fantômas
Okay, I don’t know how this one got put on the calendar, other than via the interest and tireless efforts of Peter Maravelis, teamed up with a horde of local Fantômas fans and no less than the French Embassy — but … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged Batman, City Lights, Doctor Sax, Fantomas, Peter Maravelis, PulpFest, Pulps, The Shadow, Walter Gibson
Rediscovered: You Can’t Win
Out of the legions of neglected books from all the books that have come and gone in all the world, very few return to any kind of currency. Once the book slips out of print, or the generation of readers that made it … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, Lit, SFSC
Tagged "The Red Brain", Book Collecting, City Lights, Donald Wandrei, Green Apple Books, Jack Black, John Law, Kevin Hunsanger, Kindle, Pulps, The Big Knockover, William S. Burroughs, You Can't Win
Suicide Club: Billboard Liberation
Before the Billboard Liberation Front spearheaded the modern artform of liberating billboards, it had its shadowy origins in the exploits of the ur-urban adventure group, The San Francisco Suicide Club. Personally, I never cared much about billboards, but keenly appreciated the … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Manchette
Finally. More Jean-Patrick Manchette makes the leap into English-language print. After nine years. Powers-That-Be, come on, speed it up. In March 2002 City Lights Noir created a shockwave among noir cognoscenti with Donald Nicholson-Smith’s riveting translation of Three to Kill, Manchette’s 1976 thriller … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, Willeford
Tagged City Lights, David Goodis, Donald Westlake, Manchette, New York Review Books, Red Harvest
News: October 2009
TWO TOURS IN OCTOBER For anyone who missed the full month of Hammett walks in September, you’ve got a couple of chances to make it good this month. Two dames flying in from Switzerland asked for one and a book … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit, News, Tour
Tagged City Lights, Craig Clevenger, Elmore Leonard, Mike Humbert, Peter Maravelis, PW, Radio, Robert Mailer Anderson