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: Tom Krabacher
Rediscovered: The Big Picnic
John D. Haefele just got a nice nod for Xmas for his Cyclopean tome Lovecraft: The Great Tales — and from noted Lovecraftian Ken Hite, no less. In November I got an enthusiastic yet somewhat startled note from my academic … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Book Collecting, Chicken-Fried Cthulhu, John D. Haefele, Ken Hite, Kickstarter, Lovecraft, Skelos, Tom Krabacher
Rediscovered: Batgirl at $11,850 Off
Got a note in from Brian Leno immediately after he read Tom Krabacher’s report on the Windy City pulp convention, where the issue of Weird Tales with Margaret Brundage’s “Batgirl” cover went at auction for $11,000 plus 10% buyer’s premium. … Continue reading
Rediscovered: On Library Shelves. . .
Got a note and a couple of pics from Tom Krabacher, academic, to let me know that “Great Tales has arrived in the academy!” If not earlier in other venues, John D. Haefele’s recent and monumental tome Lovecraft: The Great … Continue reading
Rediscovered: A Review of an Eldritch Review
Over on the DMR blog Deuce Richardson just popped up a review of John D. Haefele’s most recent book (and presumed magnum opus) Lovecraft: The Great Tales. He wrestles with the complexities, and I suppose my fave pull quote would … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Deuce Richardson, Jeffery Scott Sims, John D. Haefele, Kevin Cook, Tom Krabacher
Rediscovered: More Bradbury?
For an Autograph Hound Quick Follow-Up John D. Haefele sends in: “How about this one, which I found in a bookstore? I doubt it is actually Bradbury’s signature — & the ‘John!’ is purely a coincidence.” I don’t know, the … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Bradbury Enters the Fray
Autograph Hound Super-Sunday returns, carried by a morbid wave of interest in the indecipherable! Tom Krabacher dropped a note to say, “Saw the Charles de Lint signature on your blog. Kevin’s explanation that de Lint’s autograph is actually just his … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit
Tagged Autographs, Charles de Lint, Ray Bradbury, Ray Faraday Nelson, Roy Batty, Tom Krabacher
Rediscovered: Purist Outrage!
The idea that Brian Leno and Tom Krabacher and I cast wary eyes toward the new James Patterson “Shadow” novel recently drove the noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook into a berserker frenzy. “Why the [sulphurous blasphemy] do you … Continue reading
Rediscovered: A Shadow Puzzle
Brian Leno greets me this morning with a puzzler. “A little quiz for the Mean Streets, Don: Which of these three does not belong?” The reboot or reimagining or defunding of The Shadow by James Patterson came out the other … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Brian Leno, Doctor Sax, Jack Kerouac, James Patterson, The Shadow, Tom Krabacher, William S. Burroughs
Rediscovered: Another Hannes Bok
Let’s conjure up another Autograph Hound Super-Sunday, since Tom Krabacher was poking around in the archives and stumbled across the post where Kevin Cook trotted out a couple of Hannes Bok letters, with distinctive doodling. One of those What the … Continue reading
