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: Raymond Chandler
Hammett: “The Advertisement IS Literature”
Even as he packs his valise for PulpFest 2012, our frequent Guest Blogger Terry Zobeck finds a moment to comment on the local action: “Nice post on Vidal. He’s one of my favorite writers. He got a little odd there … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged "Ber-Bulu", "Mike Alec or Rufus", "The Advertisement IS Literature", Anatole France, Aristotle, Benedetto Croce, Black Mask, Goethe, Gore Vidal, H. L. Mencken, Jim Tully, Joel Elias Spingarn, John Galsworthy, Joseph Conrad, Mark Dawidziak, Ohio State University, Phil Cody, PulpFest, Raymond Chandler, Ring Lardner, Terry Zobeck, The Editor, Thomas Carlyle, Western Advertising
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
Hammett: And Lovecraft
Whoa. Friday the 13th. Time to get a little eldritch and unspeakable for Biography Month. . . . And unspeaking of H. P. Lovecraft, I admit I’m just as interested in the Could Have Beens of a writer’s life as the Plain … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, REH
Tagged "Conan the Argonaut", Black Mask, Cap Shaw, Farnsworth Wright, Including Murder, Lovecraft, Pulps, Raymond Chandler, The Cimmerian, Weird Tales
Rediscovered: More Life of Floyd
Got a note from Matthew Asprey that he’s got another publishing deal gone down — the magazine Contrappasso. Haven’t seen it yet, but a star feature for Up and Down These Mean Streets types would be a new autobiographical piece … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Contrappasso, Eddie Little, Edward Bunker, Floyd Salas, Jack Kerouac, James Crumley, Jim Tully, Matthew Asprey, Raymond Chandler, William S. Burroughs
Hammett: Thoughts on “House Burglary”
Wrapped in its art deco cover, the lost interview with Hammett from 1929 that Terry Zobeck located — “House Burglary Poor Trade” — is the author at a peak. Still writing for Black Mask. Not yet Hollywood. Charming, and willing to answer … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, Tour
Tagged "Death and Company", "House Burglary Poor Trade", "The SImple Art of Murder", "The Thin Man", Alfred Packer, Black Mask, Brooklyn Eagle, Eve Sanderson, Hammett Tour Book, Helen Herbert Foster, Jerome Weidman, Jo Hammett, John Jacobs, Raymond Chandler, Red Harvest, Richard Layman, Terry Zobeck, The Bookman, The Maltese Falcon Society
Hollywood Beat: Mrs. Parker and the Literary Circle
The LAVA Literary Salon that meets in Musso & Frank has a new meeting scheduled on Dorothy Parker and F. Scott Fitzgerald — sold out already! I missed their first meeting, on John Fante, but was in M&F only a couple … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit, News
Tagged Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jim Tully, John Fante, LAVA Salon, Musso & Frank, PulpFest, Raymond Chandler
Hammett: Only Four to Go
Terry Zobeck followed through on his plan to hit the Library of Congress in search of pure texts for Hammett stories, and cut the list of seven missing texts down to only four. Plus he copied various other items for research … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News
Tagged Black Mask, Book Collecting, Library of Congress, Pulps, pure texts, Raymond Chandler, Terry Zobeck, The Forum, The New York Evening Post, Western Advertising, Zobeck Series One
Hollywood Beat: Musso & Frank
Since I missed out on Musso & Frank for years, I’ve been trying to catch up, stopping in every time I make the drive down to LA — I figure I won’t burn out, given that I only drop south once or twice a … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, DMac, Film, Lit
Tagged Bukowski, Charles Bronson, Charlie Chaplin, Craig Graham, Doug Fairbanks, Ed Lauter, Harlan Ellison, Jim Thompson, Johnny Depp, Leo Grin, Musso & Frank, Raymond Chandler, Vagabond Books
Rediscovered: Digging Out the Dannay
I’ve never been interested in the fiction of author “Ellery Queen” — nom de guerre for the cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. The only Queen titles I ever recall reading were some of the 1960s novels ghost written … Continue reading
