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: The Great War
Rediscovered: A Ghost-Seer for Halloween
Leading up to Halloween I finally picked up my 1998 Ash-Tree Press edition of Aylmer Vance: Ghost-Seer by Alice and Claude Askew and read through. A solid set of eight British occult detective tales, all published in two months — … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Alice and Claude Askew, Ash-Tree Press, E.G. Swain, Hugh Lamb, Jack Adrian, M.P. Dare, Richard Dalby, The Great War, William Hope Hodgson
Hammett: The Slaughter of Duller Characters
Two or three emails back the noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook mentioned to me that Hammett had gone to France during the Great War. I told him, not as far as I know. But now there’s some evidence … Continue reading
Posted in Dash
Tagged Evan Lewis, France, Kevin Cook, newspaper action, Tallulah Bankhead, The Great War, Willa Gray Martin
Rediscovered: Does Continuity Matter?
For those who enjoy chewing the fat about books and writers, in email the noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook and I recently got off on another little thread that might interest some of you: Kevin: Of course the … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Further “Fungus” Fisher
Yet another Autograph Hound Super-Sunday! Jeez, what have I got lying around in all the stacks of stuff? Remember when Brian Leno provided a John Hancock for Philip M. Fisher Jr, probably best known today for his short story “Fungus … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged "Fungus Isle", Argosy All-Story Weekly, Brian Leno, Frank A. Munsey, Kevin Cook, Philip M. Fisher Jr, The Great War
Rediscovered: Chandler and the Great War
Brian Wallace lets me know about news popping in scattered corners of the noir universe. I suspect he thinks I’m too lazy to look for the stuff myself, and if so, he isn’t wrong. For many long years I have operated under the … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged Brian Wallace, Literary Plaques, London's blue enamel plaques, Raymond Chandler, The Great War
Hammett: Chewing Over Crime and Communism
For Xmas on the Hammett front this year, obviously grabbing a copy of The Big Book of the Continental Op is first on the list — just try stuffing that floppy behemoth of a trade paperback into the old stocking! And anyone … Continue reading
Rediscovered: More First World War
When I began fielding Michael Stoler’s query about the use of the expression “the First World War” in Hammett’s “This King Business” from 1928 last month, I had the impression that I had encountered the use of “First” — not just … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Talking Cthulhu Mythos and Weird Tales at PulpFest
Image at top: a detail from the PulpFest Facebook page of the panel for discussing the Cthulhu Mythos; left to right Nathan Madison, John D. Haefele, Don Herron, Rick Lai, and moderator Tom Krabacher. Image at bottom: detail, Haefele and … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Cthulhu Mythos, Farnsworth Wright, John D. Haefele, Mike Chomko, Nathan Madison, PulpFest, Rick Lai, The Great War, Tom Krabacher, Weird Tales
Rediscovered: The Great War — Circa 1914
One reason I scheduled a tour for Sunday July 26 was to get myself within striking distance of the Erik Chipchase art reception in Lanesplitter Pizza & Pub on the Emeryville/Oakland borderlands — that showing ends in a couple of … Continue reading
Posted in News, SFSC, Tour
Tagged "This King Business", Cacophony Society, Erik Chipchase, The Great War
