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: Kevin Cook
Rediscovered: Hamilton and Finlay, “He That Hath Wings” — or, Weird Tales, The Lost Illustrations
Autograph Hound Saturday — and noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook uses one of the Edmond Hamilton signatures from his collection to spin a little yarn about the Hamster (1904-1977) and Weird Tales and the legendary artist Virgil Finlay … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Autographs, Edmond Hamilton, Fantastic, Kevin Cook, Virgil Finlay, Weird Tales, World Fantasy Convention
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: Kevin and Karl
“How It All Began” — and by chance, captured on film! Much like the first meeting of me and Bill “The Voice of Noir” Arney, the noted book and pulp — and autograph — collector Kevin Cook has found evidence of … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Autographs, Dave Kurzman, David Drake, Karl Edward Wagner, Kevin Cook, Manly Wade Wellman, Stuart Schiff
Rediscovered: A. Merritt’s Ishtar
The fantasy writer A. Merritt was born on this date in 1884 and to commemorate the occasion Kevin Cook, noted book and pulp collector, decided to trot out yet another John Hancock from his trove of Merritt signatures. Kevin spills … Continue reading
Rediscovered: A Line or Two on Fiction Mag Word Rates
And John Locke sent in some thoughts on the large trove of Munsey cheques from which we’ve run any number of samples in recent months. “Weinberg used to auction batches of those checks,” John says, “at Windy City and Pulpcon. … Continue reading
Rediscovered: More Ace and Parker
Coincidentally, the topic of Ace Atkins and Robert B. Parker also popped up in the last few days in exchanges with Kevin Cook, noted pulp and book collector. “At this point in time Parker is still an industry,” Kevin observed, … 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: James Lee Burke’s Even Hand
Autograph Hound Saturday once again, and I get the sense that the riot of horrible, illegible John Hancocks we’ve been running recently has begun to bother Kevin Cook, noted book and pulp and autograph collector. The guy likes order, not … 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
