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: pure texts
Hammett: Before Dannay. . .
Our frequent Guest Blogger Terry Zobeck returns with a fresh discovery in his investigation into how Frederic Dannay edited Hammett’s short stories for paperback publication, decades ago. Hey, you jump into the pool, you can dive deeper — and deeper. Take it, … Continue reading
Hammett: “Ruffian’s Wife”
Guest Blogger Terry Zobeck returns with another post about the edits Frederic Dannay made while collecting Hammett’s short stories into paperback format decades ago. I notice he drops the name James Sandoe for the first time on this site — … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, News
Tagged "Ruffian's Wife", Frederic Dannay, James Sandoe, Jo Hammett, pure texts, Sunset, Terry Zobeck, Zobeck Series One
Hammett: “One Hour”
Guest Blogger Terry Zobeck returns with another look into the edits made by Fred Dannay, and this time finds that the blue pencil smote lightly back in 1944! Plus he discovers yet another “pure text” Hammett story available in a modern … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged "One Hour", "The Gutting of Couffignal", Black Mask, EQMM, Frederic Dannay, Pulps, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, Tony Goodstone, Zobeck Series One
Death Lit: More on Parker
Terry Zobeck and I have been working behind the scenes to polish up some of his “pure texts” posts, in particular his first shot at it for “This King Business.” Looking it over again, Terry realized he’d left any changes … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News
Tagged "Corkscrew", "The Gutting of Couffignal", Ace Atkins, Jesse Stone, Pulps, pure texts, Raymond Chandler, Robert B. Parker, Spenser, Terry Zobeck, Zobeck Series One
Hammett: “The New Racket”
Terry Zobeck kicks off another month for us here at Up and Down These Mean Streets with an entry in his series of pure text corrections for Hammett’s short fiction — contrasting the blue pencil work editor Frederic Dannay was making on the … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged "The Judge Laughed Last", "The New Racket", Black Mask, EQMM, Frederic Dannay, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, The Adventures of Sam Spade, Zobeck Series One
Hammett: “Dan Odams”
Terry Zobeck returns with another Guest Blog detailing the edits Frederic Dannay made as he gathered Hammett’s short stories into a series of paperbacks over half a century ago — editorial cuts and changes which have been perpetuated in editions of … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged "The Man Who Killed Dan Odams", Black Mask, Cap Shaw, Frederic Dannay, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, Zobeck Series One
Hammett: More Dumas, père
Recent posts on the idea of influence of the senior Alexandre Dumas on Hammett and the poisoning motif from The Count of Monte Cristo surfacing in the story “Fly Paper” reminded my good pal Jiro Kimura of something he noticed a … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News
Tagged "Fly Paper", Alexandre Dumas, Babe McCloor, Jiro Kimura, Joe Gores, pure texts, Spade & Archer, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Maltese Falcon Society
Hammett: More on “Death”
Prompted by Terry Zobeck’s post on “Death and Company,” I pulled out my Dell Mapback edition of The Return of the Continental Op and checked through all his corrections. Took a little bit of work, since Terry’s page and line numbers refer to … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, Lit, News, Tour
Tagged "Death and Company", "Mike Alec or Rufus", "The Creeping Siamese", "The Farewell Murder", "The Thin Man", "Women Politics and Murder", 408 Turk, 620 Eddy, 891 Post, 895 Post, Bill Arney, Black Mask, Cap Shaw, Dell Mapbacks, Frederic Dannay, Hammett Tour Book, Pru Whitfield, Pulps, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, The Glass Key, The Return of the Continental Op
Hammett: The Original “Death”
As announced, Terry Zobeck is on board to let Hammett fans know exactly which words and sentences Frederic Dannay cut from the original magazine texts as he collected Hammett’s short stories into digest-sized paperbacks — in effect, Terry is reconstructing the closest … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, Lit
Tagged "Death and Company", Black Mask, Frederic Dannay, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, The Return of the Continental Op, Zobeck Series One
Hammett: The Dannay Edits
Terry Zobeck returns for another Guest Blog post, an overview of Things to Come. Inspired by his research into restoring the pure text on “This King Business,” Terry has decided to dig into his collection and show us what Hammett wrote before … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged "This King Business", EQMM, Frederic Dannay, pure texts, Terry Zobeck, Zobeck Series One
