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About DonHerron.com
In 1977 Don Herron began leading The Dashiell Hammett Tour, now the longest-running literary tour in the nation. On this site you’ll find information on current walks — dates, where to meet, arranging tours by appointment — plus a hard-boiled blog with news, reviews of books and film, and a dash of noir.
The latest and greatest edition to self-guide you up and down the mean streets.
Willeford: The Book
Includes the first “Mr. Hunt” story, “Knives in the Dark.”
Tag Archives: Richard Layman
Hammett: James, Joyce
Tough one — this post from frequent Guest Blogger Terry Zobeck could be held over till August for LitCrit Month — nothing is more LitCrit than James Joyce and Finnegans Wake, right??? — or just popped online right now during … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged Butch Cassidy, James D. Horan, Jesse James, Liberty Book Club, Library of Congress, PM, Richard Layman, Stefan Heym, Terry Zobeck, The Forum, Upton Sinclair, Wild Bunch
Hammett: “Who Killed Bob Teal?”
Step-by-step, story-by-story, Terry Zobeck is chipping away at the editing done to Hammett’s short stories by Frederic Dannay over fifty years ago, and this round returns with another tale of the Continental Op. Most Op tales take place in San … Continue reading
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
Hammett: The Lost Interview
For Biography Month, what could Terry Zobeck dig up, with which to startle and amaze? How about a forgotten interview with Hammett, filled with a wealth of biographical detail? Here’s Terry: Hammett didn’t do many major interviews, other than … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News
Tagged "From the Memoirs of a Private Detective", "House Burglary Poor Trade", Black Mask, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Daily Express, Dashiell Hammett: A Casebook, Eve Sanderson, Helen Herbert Foster, James Cooper, John D. Squires, Richard Layman, Secret Agent X-9, Smart Set, Terry Zobeck, The Bookman, William F. Nolan
Hammett: The Lineup for Including Murder
If you don’t have the issue of Clues with the Robert S. Powell article on Including Murder, you may wonder which stories would have made up what would have been Hammett’s first book, if it had been published — all Continental Op tales … Continue reading
Posted in Dash
Tagged "Bodies Piled Up", "Crooked Souls", "Night Shots", "One Hour", "The Gatewood Caper", "The Gatewood Thing", "The Girl with the Silver Eyes", "The Goiden Horseshoe", "The House in Turk Street", "The Secret Emperor", "Women Politics and Murder", "Zigzags of Treachery", 620 Eddy, Black Mask, Clues, Including Murder, Phil Cody, Pulps, pure texts, Richard Layman, Robert S. Powell
Rediscovered: Roadhouse Benny
One of the major reasons I went to the Hammett-fest the last day of Noir City is that I figured I might as well, finally, catch a showing of Roadhouse Nights from 1930. I don’t recall it ever showing in … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: Call Me Al — Al Catraz
For a brief while in there, ennui seized me in its grip, and it seemed like the only thing I had to live for (in the current popular entertainment landscape, at any rate) was the return of The Walking Dead, any … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, News
Tagged Alcatraz, Creepy Karpis, Daryl Dixon, Deadwood, Douglas Fairbanks, Ed Lauter, Geri Jewell, Hurley, Jean Hagen, Joe Gores, Leo Grin, Leon Rippy, Lost, Missi Pyle, Monk, Noir City, Richard Layman, Sam Neill, Sarah Jones, Stephen King, Terry Zobeck, The Artist, The Mark of Zorro, The Walking Dead, Vince Emery
Hammett: Book Reviewer
How about we kick off February with The Return of Terry Zobeck? Terry took a little time off there from blogging (hey, so did I), but he’s back with another exploration down an interesting byway of Hammett studies — the … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit
Tagged Frederic Dannay, New Masses, Richard Layman, Terry Zobeck, The Forum, The New York Evening Post, The Saturday Review of Literature
