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
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Essays and Reviews Selected from Fifty Years of Writing 1974–2024
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Tag Archives: Nathan Ward
Rediscovered: The Conniving Curley
Hop over to Crimereads to peruse Nathan Ward’s latest research into the flimflam and frayed borders of the legends and lives that populated the Wild West. Most recently Nathan made the Up and Down These Mean Streets scene with his … Continue reading
Hammett: Nathan Ward v. M. Spade
Got a note from our pal Nathan Ward — author of the Hammett bio The Lost Detective — that he’s getting sucked into the current Sam Spade experience of watching Monsieur Spade on AMC. “I have only seen one episode,” … Continue reading
Rediscovered: The Weather Channel c. 1888
Mostly in connection with the Texas writer Robert E. Howard, I’ve been in and out of the Lone Star State several times and got to deeply savor some of the storms. Tornadoes even hit a couple of towns over from … Continue reading
Rediscovered: “Wild Bill, I Presume?”
In building up his history of the Old West in his new book, Nathan Ward naturally brings in Wild Bill Hickok. Couldn’t leave him out, in my opinion. It’s like the IMDb Top Four Known Fors. Right now I think … Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged Ben Franklin, Blackbeard the Pirate, Henry Morton Stanley, Nathan Ward, Son of the Old West, Wild Bill Hickok
Rediscovered: Cowboy America
“Wild cattle that refused to move with the herd and kept returning to the brush the cowboys might make docile by sewing their eyelids shut; after about two weeks, when the thread had decayed enough for the eyes to reopen, … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Biography Month Redux
Today is the official publication date for Nathan Ward’s newest bio, Son of the Old West — The Odyssey of Charlie Siringo: Cowboy, Detective, Writer of the Wild Frontier. Something to kick off another Biography Month here on These Mean … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News
Tagged Captain James Cook, Charlie Siringo, Danny Trejo, Eugene Manlove Rhodes, Franz Kafka, Jim Tully, Jimmy Buffett, Mark Dawidziak, Nathan Ward, Paul J. Bauer, Son of the Old West, Steve Eng
Hammett: Have Horse, Will Gallop
Nathan Ward just popped in the news that a racehorse named Maltese Falcon just moved up from maiden to graded stakes winner status — and in La Jolla, Raymond Chandler’s old stomping grounds. “There are Hammett quotes to apply,” Nathan … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: Nathan Ward Goes to Sea
You’ll remember Nathan Ward and his Hammett bio The Lost Detective. That one really gets going when Hammett rolls into San Francisco and sits down at his typewriter. Over on CrimeReads Nathan has just kicked a story off from San … Continue reading
Noir: More Murderous Monday
On Saturday July 23 I pulled on the worn gumshoes and led a group by appointment up and down the mean streets, and a fun parade it turned out to be. A guy named Alec Binnie arranged the deal. He … Continue reading
Hammett: #MeToo 2
Awhile back I linked to a set of contemporary newsprint articles on Hammett and the assault on Elise De Viane. At that moment Cosby had been thrown in the hoosegow — and now he’s out. The weird meanderings of history-in-the-making. … Continue reading
