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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: Wilmer Cook
Hammett: Top Ten
ABEbooks just released a list of their top money-makers for 2021 and Hammett comes in at no. 10 — not with a first edition, but with a much later reprint of The Maltese Falcon inscribed to Bebe Daniels. Bebe played … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged ABEbooks, Bebe Daniels, Book Collecting, Dwight Frye, The Midget Bandit, Wilmer Cook
Sinister Cinema: Gaudy Wilmerian Patter
Pulps in the Movies! On Sale Every Wednesday! In his exciting series renowned pulp expert John Locke has hit them short and sweet, the slam-bam thanks for holding a pulp, m’am posts. He’s gone back into the silent era. He’s … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Lit
Tagged Black Mask, Bogie, Cap Shaw, Elisha Cook Jr., Grand Central Murder, John Locke, MGM, Oscar, Paul Cain, Peter Ruric, Pulps in the Movies, Tom Conway, Van Heflin, Warner Brothers, Wilmer Cook
Hammett: Locke’s One-Liner on Rhea/Wilmer
After John Locke hit the Up and Down These Mean Streets scene late last year, I got to steer him to various interesting moments in the extensive backlog of posts. One of them was to the bizarre idea that Gutman’s … Continue reading
Hammett: Gutman’s Daughter Preying on Minds
I was just mentioning to Bill Arney that our days of hanging out in San Francisco bars between ten and twenty years ago was a Golden Age, and that I said so at the time. Golden Ages don’t slip past me … Continue reading
Hammett: More “Gutman’s Daughter”
You may remember Marc LaViolette from the caper where he noticed something wrong in the Hammett collection Nightmare Town, and rang up Terry “Race” Zobeck, Pure Text Dick, to get to the bottom of it. Mystery solved. Case closed. The usual. … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News
Tagged Casper Gutman, Marc LaViolette, Race Zobeck, Rhea Gutman, Sue Montgomery, Wilmer Cook
Hammett: It’s Greek to Me
Photo courtesy Becky Dawidziak — featuring her dad Mark Dawidziak, of Jim Tully biography fame — shot for a class project to take a picture on the two-word theme Proof Reading. I think she nailed it. Thanks, Becky. I just crawled out … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, News
Tagged Anne Ferguson, Becky Dawidziak, Edwin Ware, Jim Tully, John D. Haefele, Lee Marvin, Mark Dawidziak, Sue Montgomery, The Midget Bandit, Warren Harris, Wilmer Cook
Hammett: In the Aftermath of Midget Bandit Week
Last Sunday, just as we wrapped up a full week of posts for Midget Bandit Week — seven days, every day — Michael Fitzgerald over at the Stockton Record added a post of his own. What the hell, let’s make like The Beatles … Continue reading
Hammett: Edwin “Midget” Ware
Yesterday I told you we were going to give you an ID on The Midget Bandit — and here it is. As direct as a fist in the face. If you ever had the slightest curiosity about The Midget Bandit, … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, News
Tagged Edwin Ware, Fresno California, Michael Fitzgerald, Modern Library Falcon, Pinkerton's, Stockton California, The Midget Bandit, Warren Harris, Wilmer Cook
Hammett: Midget Bandit Week!
If you’re any kind of serious fan of the writings of Dashiell Hammett, you know that Hammett modeled the gunsel Wilmer Cook in The Maltese Falcon, published in first edition hardcovers by Knopf in 1930, on a crook known as The Midget Bandit. … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Lit, News
Tagged Bogie, Elisha Cook Jr., John Huston, Modern Library Falcon, PEAPS, Stockton California, The Midget Bandit, Warren Harris, Wilmer Cook
Hammett: “What About His Daughter?”
Birthday 75 for the Golden Gate Bridge. Birthday 118 for Dashiell Hammett. . . . What to do for the birthday this year? How about something Hammettesque I’ve never heard of before? I checked some sources, not a mention — as … Continue reading
