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: Nathan Ward
Hammett: And Stein
Nathan Ward just informed me of a tidbit he did for Crimereads, about the meeting of Hammett and Gertrude Stein. If you have his bio of Hammett, The Lost Detective, you’ve already got the gist of the incident. Especially these … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Cowboy Elmore
Our pal Nathan Ward is keeping his hand in with this and that, after knocking out his bio of Hammett way back in 2015. Mean Streets Up and Downers no doubt will be interested in reading a blurb he just … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Charlie Siringo, Range Op
If you’re curious, you can read at least the opening of a new article posted today for Westworld out of Denver on the famous or infamous range detective Charlie Siringo — researched and written by none other than our pal … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Fred Dannay and His More Literary Cousin
A couple of years back Nathan Ward popped me a link to an article — a very good, long article — about the popular Mean Streets topic Frederic Dannay, one half of the “Ellery Queen” writing team, and his continuing … Continue reading
Hammett: More Reviews from a “Careful Reading, Deep Thinking Advertising Man”
Terry Zobeck has raided the Library of Congress again, and found that they now have color copiers — but that copies of Western Advertising are a bit larger than their scanner bed, and that his scanner program just doesn’t do … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, News
Tagged Duncan Sisters, KGO, Library of Congress, Marc LaViolette, Nathan Ward, Richard Layman, Terry Zobeck, Western Advertising
Noir: Another Murderous Monday with Nathan Ward. . .
Our Hammett biographer pal Nathan Ward returns to the mean streets of the Akashic Press website with another Mondays Are Murder noir short-short — 750 words, tops, and in line with the Akashic “City” Series the streets have to be … Continue reading
Hammett: Hey-Ya, Hey-Ya, Who’s Got a Black Boid?
Nathan Ward just sent along a link to an article in Vanity Fair on the subject of falcon statues — from the 1941 Bogie flick or the George Segal The Black Bird or anywhere else you might grab a falcon … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, News
Tagged Accessories to Murder, Black Dahlia murder, Bogie, George Segal, John's Grill, Maltese Falcon statue, Nathan Ward, Vanity Fair
Rediscovered: Life and Death for the Boxers
Boxing is in the air I’m breathing this weekend. Need to drop in for a birthday party for my pal Floyd Salas, who is hitting 85 years on the Mean Streets — and some of the streets he went up and down were unquestionably … Continue reading
Posted in Boxing, REH
Tagged Billy Papke, Brian Leno, Floyd Salas, Hype Igoe, John Lardner, Lovecraft, Manuel A. Mora, Nat Fleischer, Nathan Ward, Pete "The Goat" Stone, Stanley Ketchel
Hammett: Into the Ring
You haven’t heard the last of Nathan Ward on These Mean Streets — but you knew that. And make that Edgar Nominee Nathan Ward. Yeah, Nathan’s The Lost Detective — his bio of Hammett — just made the cut for the Edgar … Continue reading
Hammett: Win Some Lose Some
How about the Hitchcockesque pic above to close out the year? Shot in the stairwell in the Mechanics’ Library after one of my talks about Hammett or noir. I feel noir just looking at it. And kind of dizzy, too. … Continue reading
