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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: M. P. Shiel
Rediscovered: An Ossuary of Paper and Board for a Rajah of Words
You snooze and you lose. Of course, it doesn’t help anything if the item you are about to buy is done in a print run of only about 85 copies, published in Bucharest. . . . By the moment I … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged A. Reynolds Morse, Alfred A. Knopf, Carl Van Vechten, Harold Billings, John D. Squires, M. P. Shiel, Malcolm Ferguson, Steve Eng
Rediscovered: Biography Month Once More on These Mean Streets
What ho, it is Biography Month once again on Up and Down These Mean Streets — last time I did one was July 2012. The new bio of Jim Tully was a big excuse that time, and no doubt the … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged 620 Eddy, 811 Geary, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Fritz Leiber, Geary Street, Hyde Street, Jim Tully, Leo Grin, M. P. Shiel, Miriam Allen DeFord, Morgan Holmes, Musso & Frank, Nathan Ward, PulpFest, Saigon Sandwich, Saroyan, Stan McNail, Stan Sargent, Tenderloin Museum, Terry Zobeck, William Vollmann
Frisco Beat: Top of the Heap!
The Literary World of San Francisco — as I’ve been reporting — is still no.2 on the Amazon bestseller list for travel books about San Francisco as I check the stats today, but yesterday for about 4 hours muscled it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged Amazon, Arthur Machen, Book Collecting, Brian Leno, David Drake, John D. Squires, Karl Edward Wagner, Literary World of San Francisco, Lovecraft, M. P. Shiel
Rediscovered: Becoming Legends
Fritz Leiber, subject of the tour coming up this Sunday, was alive for much of the time I’ve been doing walks. Some of you may remember Hammett tours when we reached 811 Geary Street and did the blurb on Fritz and Our Lady … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, News, Tour, Willeford
Tagged 811 Geary, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Fritz Leiber, Harlan Ellison, John Gawsworth, Library of America, M. P. Shiel, Michael Dirda, Our Lady of Darkness, Washington Post
Rediscovered: Yet More Fantômas
In a couple of hours I’m out the door for PulpFest (boom-boom-boom, boom-boom). Noticed that for the first evening’s programming they have a talk titled The French Connection — “How French Literature May Have Influenced American Pulp Heroes.” Dumas. Fantômas. … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Alexander Dumas, Batman, Fantomas, John D. Squires, Library of Congress, Louis Tracy, M. P. Shiel, PulpFest, The Shadow
Rediscovered: The Lost World of Pulp!
In less than a week I’m off to PulpFest 2012 in Columbus, Ohio, with side trips to look up Jim Tully sites in St. Marys plus check out one of the world’s best privately held collections of M. P. Shiel — and … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News, REH
Tagged Brian Leno, Clark Ashton Smith, Conan, Dime Detective, Donald Wandrei, E. Hoffmann Price, Ernest Hemingway, Esquire, F. Scott Fitzgerald, I. V. Frost, Jim Tully, John D. Squires, John Lawrence, M. P. Shiel, Marquis of Broadway, Mike Nevins, Pawang Ali, PulpFest, pure texts, Raymond Chandler, Terry Zobeck, The Shadow, Weird Tales
Rediscovered: The Shiel Biographies
By this time last year I had poked my way through the first two of three projected volumes covering the life of M. P. Shiel, and happened to bump into Vince Emery while I was reading along. “Give me one … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged Arthur Machen, H. G. Wells, Harold Billings, Humanities Research Center, Including Murder, M. P. Shiel, Redonda, Vince Emery
Rediscovered: The Poets Gawsworth and Maclaren
Recently I heard from Lucilla Maclaren Spillane, who was looking around the Web for Steve Eng. Steve, if you recall, is the guy who brought M. P. Shiel fully to my attention, and completely sold me on John Gawsworth as a … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged A. E. Housman, Cobstone Mill, Edmund Blunden, Hamish Maclaren, John Gawsworth, Lucilla Maclaren Spillane, M. P. Shiel, Redonda, Steve Eng
Hammett: “Magician” Trackdown
Lately M. P. Shiel has been in the air around here — I’ve been easing my way through the first two of three volumes of the biography of Shiel from the pen of Harold Billings (on the side reading upcoming … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News
Tagged "The Gutting of Couffignal", Harold Billings, John D. Squires, John Gawsworth, M. P. Shiel, Terry Zobeck, Vince Emery