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: Mike Humbert
Tour: Just Over Twenty Years Ago. . .
Our pal Mike Humbert sent a couple of images winging around the net, with the info line: “Two pics from me taking the Dashiell Hammett tour for the first time, October 27, 2002.” Twenty years ago and change. Image at … Continue reading
Hammett: “Girl Trap”
Our Mean Streets buddy of many years, Mike Humbert, recently got a fascinating tidbit about Hammett tossed his way from Italy — to add to the info on his own Dashiell Hammett website. Mike punted the info to me, to … Continue reading
Posted in Dash
Tagged "Girl Trap", Agnelli Tiziano, Mike Humbert, Nerbini Editore, newspaper action, Saturday Home Magazine
Mort: Bill Arney
It’s a sad day in Sam Spade’s San Francisco. Got a note from Mike Humbert last night to inform me that Bill Arney died yesterday morning, September 28 2021. As of now, I don’t know what got him. I’m kicking … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, News, Tour
Tagged 891 Post, Bill Arney, Hammett Cult in San Francisco, Mike Humbert
Hammett: Cheaper Crooms
No less and none other than Mike Humbert chips in a text message after reading yesterday’s Pulps in the Movies post about Hammett’s line “the cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.” “I thought you’d enjoy this,” Mike thumbs. “In … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Et Tu, Erle? — or, Another Lost Atlantis
When Tom Krabacher came to town the other day to hang on a feedbag filled with gooey duck, he brought along a copy of a book he helped assemble, Woodland, in Acadia Publishing’s sprawling Images of America series. I was … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Book Collecting, Erle Stanley Gardner, literary homes, Mike Humbert, Paradise California fire, Robert Colby, Tom Krabacher, Woodland California
Tour: The Worst-Air-Quality-on-the-Planet Walk
I would have thought the Age of Legendary Tours was over, but how was I to know that one day Frisco would be blanketed in smoke from Mike Humbert’s smoldering house in Paradise? Per all the news sources, the air quality … Continue reading
Hammett: Trouble in Paradise
Shot above from a few years ago, Mike Humbert, Don, Bill Arney standing in front of the folded-up Murphy bed in Sam Spade’s apartment, 891 Post Street. Mike maintains a Hammett website and Bill is famed as the one-time occupant … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, News
Tagged 891 Post, Bill Arney, Mike Humbert, Murphy bed, Paradise California fire
Hammett: A Few Notes from a Former Thin Man
Naturally, my post the other day about the first meeting of me and no less than Bill Arney on a tour back in 1982 was noticed by Bill Arney, who says: “Oh, man. “That was my first hat, my first … Continue reading
