OLD NEWS ARCHIVE

JANUARY 2010 NEWS

YEAR 33

Another year, Don’s thirty-third on the mean streets, another round of bleak noir rains rolling over the old town. No extra tours are set for this month, but you can get the new edition of The Dashiell Hammett Tour book that Vince Emery released last year and stalk Sam Spade sites to your heart’s content. You can even call it up on your Kindle if you feel like it.

But if having Don once more slip on his snapbrim and gumshoes and lead the way is what you want, mark off Valentine’s Day, the date in 1930 that Knopf published the first edition of The Maltese Falcon. In honor of the anniversary, Don will guide a tour Sunday February 14 beginning at noon, like usual. Anyone who wants to walk the walk is welcome to show up bearing a tenspot. No reservations needed, or taken.

NOIR CITY

The grainy noir photo this time was taken during the annual Noir City film festival at the Castro last year — left to right you’ll see Don, incognito without his snapbrim and trenchcoat, the new tour book, and Vince Emery. And of course another barrage of noir films selected by the mysterious Czar of Noir is headed for the Castro this month. That should keep noir fans happy, and no doubt we’ll see you there.

USA TODAY

On December 4 the new tour book got a swell plug in the Wall Street Journal and on December 18 the walking tour itself got a nice blurb from Otto Penzler in USA Today — and you’ll find an even flashier presentation for December 26 at ABCnews.com. A couple of years ago Otto prepped the monumental volume Big Book of the Pulps, and we understand that in 2010 he’ll have a similar large collection gathering lots of stories from the pulp Black Mask, where Hammett first made his name. You know, Year 33 might be a very good year. . . .

WHILE OVER IN VIENNA

Anyone interested in the curious life and intriguing career of Dennis McMillan needs to check out the interview Michael Grimm just did with old Dennis, found in this PDF. Great quotes, nice illos from issue six of Rokko's Adventures, a magazine based in Vienna. All the statements by Dennis and his posse of writers are in English. If you surf over to the Rokko's pages you also can hit the translate button and see what's what.

DECEMBER 2009 NEWS

HAPPY HARDBOILED HOLIDAYS

In this case, from a few of the folk who showed up for the Hammett Flash Mob on April 2nd of this year — but doesn’t the heavy red and green décor of The Ha-Ra Bar just shout out “Christmas!”? Standing left to right you have Ace Atkins, Christy Henry, ace San Francisco P.I. and pioneer Hammett researcher David Fechheimer, Vince Emery and Don, always ready to make a toast. He’s not as ready to schedule Hammett walks during the rainy months after 32 years on the mean streets, although a couple of groups by appointment have ponied up some loot and are prepared to brave the elements. In short, no extra tours this month, but have fun doing something else.

STOCKING STUFFERS

Of course, if you have drifted into the burg in the middle of winter and still want to walk the walk, you can always slip a copy of the new Dashiell Hammett Tour book into your stocking. Tom Nolan, author of the big biography of Ross MacDonald, suggests as much in a Crime-for-Christmas roundup for the Wall Street Journal. Yeah, the perfect gift for any hardboiled fan. . . .

LIVING IN A SYFY WORLD

And of course it is almost 2010 and all those science fiction stories have begun to catch up with and trample us. Just in case The Book is dead or dying, any techno type can now get the tour book electronically — for Kindle, for the Sony Reader and related devices, and as a downloadable PDF. Don still prefers the book book, but there you go.

ANOTHER BOOK-BOOK GUY

Don’s pal in collecting Arkham House ephemerae, John Haefele (who was a cornerstone of info for the article on the ephemerae Don wrote for Firsts: The Book Collector’s Magazine), is beginning to roll into the series of books and chapbooks he has planned on Arkham House founder August Derleth. If you are interested in Arkham, H. P. Lovecraft, the way literary reputations are made and related eldritch subjects, John’s newest title is not to be missed. Don liked the manuscript so much he did a foreword especially for this limited edition. Get it before it is gone.

MEMORIAL FOR DAVE WARREN

Next year begins with a memorial party for Dave Warren — a.k.a Flammo LeGrande, alias Irving Glick, and many more absurd identities — Saturday January 2nd from 3 to 7 p.m. in the Playland Museum in El Cerrito. Dave died January 2nd of this waning year, which happens to be the same date in 1977 that he and Gary Warne, Nancy Prussia and Adrienne Burke (Kathy Hearty was invited but couldn’t make it, and so became the fifth Beatle) founded The San Francisco Suicide Club. Every now and then some blurb writer states that Don co-founded that urban adventurer group — nope, those are the founders, Don came in about month three. Sure to be the biggest reunion of Suicide Club members in many a moon, presided over by the sardonic shade of Dave and his always ironic motto: “Have fun.”

NOVEMBER 2009 NEWS

TOUR SUNDAY NOVEMBER 15

In addition to various tours by appointment this month, Don is offering a Hammett walk open to anyone interested — Sunday November 15 at noon, ten bucks, four hours, the usual, just like it says on the Tour Page. Just show up. Noir rain or no rain, the tour is rolling.

The photo this time comes from the Flickr archives of Frank Synopsis, who walked the walk on the tour the two dames from Switzerland begged Don to lead last month — of course, they didn’t show up, but Frank and some others did, including a woman from the Czech Republic (or whatever it’s called these days) doing deep research into modern noir. Hey, even further away than Switzerland. . . . The link to Flickr will take you to Frank’s Hammett files, all kinds of shots, including different angles (and in color) on buildings you’ll see in the Dashiell Hammett Tour book. The photos from the recent tour start on the third page of the file. Plus if you want to prowl around, Frank is an Art Car enthusiast (he knew the current whereabouts of Carthedral, Don’s favorite Art Car), an Old Sign enthusiast — lots of images to gander. Which reminds us, Mike Breiding of Mike’s Epic Road Trips roamed back into the burg for a month, taking shots of naked bondage guys at the Folsom Street Fair and panoramic views from lots of hills and Land’s End — the link will take you to the review he did of Joe Donohoe’s zine Specious Species and the big interview with Don. Don’s favorite part of Mike’s blog is the obsessive interest in eating, shots of every plate ordered, usually with detailed close-ups, and the trackdown of one obscure eatery after another. If you want the vicarious thrill of having a month off and all that time to wander around San Francisco, surf over and watch Mike tackle numerous plates of food.

891 POST

At the secret noir readings for Litquake last month, held in the clandestine back room of the neo-speakeasy Bourbon & Branch, Don got a chance to gab a bit with Robert Mailer Anderson, the new Keeper of the Shrine, no less than Sam Spade’s apartment in 891 Post. A native San Franciscan, Robert is taking over for Bill Arney, a tough act to follow — Bill is at least half a Knight’s Templar, he’s got the swords and everything, and a great guy. You may have seen RMA posing with the chick with pudgy arms for the poster of Eddie Muller’s Noir City 5, plus he had a story in the first San Francisco Noir anthology — point being the rooms didn’t end up with someone who wouldn’t appreciate the honor, and Robert has the resources to polish up and finish off the restoration Bill toiled on all these years. And despite being scheduled opposite James Ellroy (and, as it happened, Obama a couple of blocks away in Union Square), the place was packed, like a real speakeasy. Readings by Cara Black, Craig Clevenger, David Corbett, Peter Plate and Mr. Lucky — plus RMA read from a brand-new piece, and in the half-dark Don reverted to story-telling off the top of his head and regaled the crowd with a real life story about how the intersection of O’Farrell and Jones just outside the doors was once the Fat Whore Corner in San Francisco.

PIG HUNT

If Don heard RMA right in the hubbub, his film Pig Hunt will be showing for a few days at The Roxie during the end of October, early November. You may have been in the audience during Noir City a couple of years ago when the trailer for Pig Hunt was shown, to the dismay of the Czar of Noir. His comment went something like, “Robert, you didn’t listen to ANY of my advice!” What the hell, Don kind of liked the preview — summer action/The Most Dangerous Game variant, set in northern California — and he particularly appreciated the fact that RMA had himself decapitated fully onscreen in the trailer. If you’re going to do it, yeah, do it right. That meets one of Don’s favorite standards for rating film: The Donnie Fritz Standard. If Don were doing a blog, he’d explain.

THE SECRET RITES OF THE McMILLAN POSSE

For no apparent reason, Dennis McMillan sent Don a couple of photos and wanted them tossed up on the website, and as a member in good standing of the McMillan Posse of Writers and Artists, Don is happy to oblige. The first shot, Dennis says, is of “Calvin Kent Anderson, under the influence of stimulants, receiving ‘the host’ from John Ruud, former drinking buddy of Lee Marvin's, in the olde days, former biker, etc., now reformed (almost) and a very cool guy to boot” and the second image seems to bear some arcane relationship to the first. Don is a big fan of Kent Anderson’s writing — the Vietnam novel Sympathy for the Devil and the sequel Night Dogs. He thought Kent’s writing for the Dennis anthology Measures of Poison, which is filled with good writing, was the best in the book, and would have been embarrassed to have been under the same boards except: 1) Kent didn’t try for a story set in the pulp era, and Don did that, and 2) Kent didn’t finish his story, he just sent in a fragment, whereas Don worked out a whole plot. The easy way to get Don’s story is the reprint in San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics, but we think for Kent’s bit you’ll have to pay through the nose for a copy of MOP.

OCTOBER 2009 NEWS

TWO TOURS IN OCTOBER

For anyone who missed the full month of Hammett walks in September, you’ve got a couple of chances to make it good this month. Two dames flying in from Switzerland asked for one and a book group asked for the other — and both gave Don enough advance notice to swing the old schedule their way. Anyone who wants to join in is welcome to show up, bearing a tenspot, for the usual four hours of hard-boiled sightseeing — same details as on the Tour Page. These walks are set for noon on Sunday October 11 and Sunday October 18 — if interested, honest, just show up. No reservations required, or taken.

FROM FAR AWAY AND ACROSS THE WEB

On the walk for September 13 a guy mentioned he’d hauled all the way down from Vancouver Island — but then a couple of other guys reported that they’d come from the city of Vancouver, pretty much matching his travels. And then a family chimed in that they were in the burg all the way from Toledo, Ohio — and then a couple said they flew in from Hawaii. Plus we had more of a Hammett web presence than ever before on a single tour. Mike Humbert, who hosts the Hammett site linked off the Tour Page, came out to stretch his legs after being run down by a car like Porky Grout up in Chico earlier this year (and Don is pretty sure the only reason his new tour book got covered in the Chico paper is because Mike did the maps for it and that gave the paper a chance to blurb one of their local boys). And that guy from Vancouver Island happens to host The Continental Op Page which is one of the first websites ever devoted to Hammett. The guy was in Hog Heaven, right in the middle of Op country, but now Don realizes that he doesn’t think he ever caught the guy’s name. . . .

MORE RADIO

Veteran Bay Area radio reporter Jan Sluizer recently taped a couple of minutes with Don for Westwood Radio One Network’s nationally syndicated program “America in the Morning.” You can catch the spot embedded in the entire show streaming on their website (pick the Tuesday, September 22 one), or if you just want to listen to the spot solo, you can Mp3 it here.

LITQUAKE

Remember how when Don tooled down to the Tucson Book Fair earlier this year to appear on a hardboiled literary panel and the programmers scheduled it against a talk by living legend Elmore Leonard? For the upcoming Litquake the readings Don is set for will be up against an appearance by James Ellroy. What the hell. Who plans out these things, anyway? Litquake runs from October 9-17, with Don popping up at 7p.m. Thursday October 15 for “Subterranean SF: Hardboiled Writing with an Edge” hosted by Peter Maravelis and also featuring Robert Mailer Anderson, Cara Black, David Corbett and Craig Clevenger. But here’s the thing: to attend the Subterranean readings you’re going to have to work for it. The location is secret. To sleuth out the site you have to go to the front desk in City Lights Bookstore and ask for an envelope, and follow directions. Super-secret and up against James Ellroy — guess that means more beer for the readers!

ADIOS, AMIGO

Don’s longtime pal Ben Indick passed away on September 28, after making it to his eighty-sixth birthday on August 11. He had a good run of it, and was a regular co-conspirator in various books and projects Don did over the years, from litcrit about Stephen King to The Dark Barbarian and beyond. For a nice local angle, Ben’s son writes under the name Michael Korie, and among other things did the book for the opera Harvey Milk. Don got to see that one during the Orpheum run some years ago, great seats courtesy the Indicks. Oh, and when Don began reviewing for Publishers Weekly late in 2000, he talked Ben into joining in on the fun — and though he started later and quit sooner, Ben totaled something like 350 reviews, completely blowing Don out of the water. As of this moment, Don has only gotten to review 119 and knows he’ll never catch up. 

SEPTEMBER 2009 NEWS

EVERY SUNDAY IN SEPTEMBER

Like it says on the Tour Page, you’ve got a Hammett tour every Sunday this month. Just show up, clutching the equivalent of a tenspot. Put some air in your gumshoes. Walk the walk.

SEAN McCOURT STRIKES AGAIN!

After writing up the tour for The Onion earlier this year, Sean McCourt just popped out another article for the San Francisco Examiner — yeoman Getting Out the Word stuff, folks.

THE NEXT NOIRCON

Lou Boxer has linked to Sean’s new article for the Noir Con blog, which he has up and cooking in advance of Noir Con 2 next year. Lots of great articles to prowl through on that blog, especially about the noir poet of Philly, David Goodis. Don attended the first Noir Con, of course — in the photo above you can see him waiting for the gates to open at the Society Hill Playhouse in Philadelphia, the official Bat Cave for Noir Con. While it is a long way off, Don figures he’ll probably go back for another round in 2010.

SPECIOUS SPECIES

Joe Donahoe has knocked out the third issue of his underground zine Specious Species, which includes alongside articles on Spain Rodriguez and Pam the Funkstress and The Thrillpeddlers a long interview with Don — a longgggg interview, not your typical short and sweet media deal. Anyone interested can email Joe to order or find out where copies are sold. Five bucks. A lot of reading for the money.

891 POST

It looks like a sure thing that Bill Arney will be leaving Sam Spade’s apartment at the end of the month, but another guy has stepped in to become the Keeper of the Shrine and preserve the original 1920s fixtures Hammett would have known when he lived in the room and was writing The Maltese Falcon. More intel to come. Meanwhile, if you want another sample of the glory days of Bill’s tenure, hop over to the NPR archives and catch the program featuring Bill and Don and others done in connection with putting the historic plaque on 891 Post in time for the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of Hammett’s most famous novel. Oh, yeah — if you go back to the August 2009 News you’ll see a shot of Bill at the plaque ceremony — from right to left standing behind him are Jo Hammett, Hammett’s younger daughter, then Richard Layman, one of the Hammett biographers, then Jo’s son Evan Marshall, a.k.a. Hammett’s grandson. 

AUGUST 2009 NEWS

END OF DAY STUFF, OR, A GLOOMY MONTH ON THE MEAN STREETS

Don’t let the title panic you, the Hammett tour strides merrily along, with Don doing some groups by appointment this month and a full set of walks set for every Sunday in September, just like it says on the Tour Page. But some of our pals are retrenching — such as Dennis McMillan, shown with Don in the shot above, made outside Dennis’ backlist storage lair during the Tucson Book Fair earlier this year. Dennis has decided that he has finished with publishing, going out with Lono Waiwaiolo’s Dark Paradise and a deluxe edition of Michael Connelly’s most recent book. He’ll still sell you whatever stock he has around, for awhile anyway, so if you are curious pop him an email. You can still get Don’s book Willeford and Lono’s novel, like a Hawaiian version of Elmore Leonard, and a fun novel by Bob Truluck and other good stuff. Once before Dennis dropped publishing only to return to the fray after a few years, but who knows what’ll happen this round? In Tucson Don did hear Dennis muttering about a documentary being made about him, and Dennis was thinking it might be fun to have a scene where he takes all the still unsold books out into the desert and torches them. So, if interested, get them before they’re hot, before Dennis moves on.

LESS THAN TWO WEEKS LEFT

When Leo Grin, editor and publisher of The Cimmerian, heard that Dennis might just burn everything left, he said, “Hey, hes stealing my idea!” Yes, Leo is planning to destroy any unsold stock on his excellent magazine devoted to Robert E. Howard, with August 31 the last day you can order. Dennis may or may not destroy the stock, who knows?, but Leo is as serious as a heart attack. Get issues immediately or poke around after them on eBay later. Don appeared in many issues, with the full list to be found here.

BAD DAY AT SAM'S PLACE

JULY 2009 NEWS

NO EXTRA TOURS

Don is leading some groups by appointment up and over the mean streets in July and August, but nothing has been set up where anyone can just show up with a tenspot and walk the walk — still, it’s not that long till September and tours every Sunday in the month. And anyone who wants to do the self-guided version can pull on some gumshoes, grab the new edition of the tour book, and hit the pavement at will. The new edition of the tour book from Vince Emery continues to glom good reviews, such as the Midwest Book Review (“a must-have for any fan of Hammett's work") — and veteran reviewer Jon L. Breen concurs in the Summer 2009 issue of Mystery Scene (“This is a must addition to the Hammett shelf”). Oh, yeah — and folk who missed Don’s appearance on KGO last month can catch it here, minus news and commercial breaks.

WIDE OPEN SPACES

The photo this month was shot by Fabrice Tortey from atop Enchanted Rock outside Fredericksburg, Texas — showing Don leading the way with poet Donald Sidney-Fryer at his heels along this enormous hunk of primal bedrock. In the hills outside Fredericksburg the Texas fantasist Robert E. Howard first envisioned the land of Cimmeria, and soon created Conan the barbarian. The two Dons rolled into the annual Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains last month, sat in on poetry panels and ducked out on the bad readings of Howard poetry that some genius scheduled for Friday night. The gift shop in the Howard House offered the new issue of Damon Sasser’s Two-Gun Raconteur, where Don contributed a memorial tribute to the late Howard critic Steve Tompkins, and also a second edition of the Dennis McHaney collection The Man from Cross Plains to which Don contributed an article comparing Conan and Bruce Lee. Get them if you want them. And Fabrice reports that his own long-delayed critical collection on Howard, Echoes of Cimmeria, is coming back from the printers any moment now — all in French, including a little introduction Don wrote for the litcrit section.

CHANDLER CAMEO

Longtime local hard-boiled fan Art Scott popped Don an email while he was off in Texas, asking about something that just exploded all over the web: “I suspect you’re already aware that there’s been a recent flurry of excitement online about the ‘recent discovery’ of Raymond Chandler's cameo appearance in Double Indemnity (just Google ‘chandler cameo’). Only I’ve known about it for something like 20 years, maybe 30, and I vaguely recall that you made that discovery long ago and mentioned it, probably at a Bouchercon film program. Bruce Taylor and I are trying to convince a friend that this discovery is Real Old News to those of us who're really in the know.”

Yep, while the guys who think they found something hot are welcome to the excitement, Don spotted that one the first time he saw Double Indemnity and has told people about it for circa thirty years. And on this front a pal of his just spotted a new clip of Hammett on film — otherwise, we believe there’s only one brief home movie showing Hammett that is known at this point (the footage of Hammett’s testimony before HUAC has yet to turn up). More news as it develops on that one.

NOIR REPRISE

And anyone interested gets another shot at having copies of San Francisco Noir and San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics signed, as editor Peter Maravelis hosts an evening in The Green Arcade Bookstore, 1680 Market Street near Gough in San Francisco, Thursday July 30 at 7 p.m. — a great way to ring out the month. Peter will be spinning records of the sort his bud Mr. Lucky likes to perform, mixing martinis, signing books. Various contributors to the two volumes are set to show up, and Don plans to be there to put his John Hancock on his neo-Black Mask tale in The Classics for anyone who wants to read that violent little tribute to Hammett.

JUNE 2009 NEWS

NO EXTRA TOURS

Nothing extra kicking along the mean streets for June, but the desperate always can use an edition of the Dashiell Hammett Tour book for a self-guided prowl over the gumshoe-haunted Frisco hills. And any tours open for anyone who wants to show up will be announced here in the monthly news, as they happen. If they aren’t inked in here on the web, they’re not happening.

BACK TO KGO

Don hasn’t yakked with the folk at KGO radio, 8.10 on your a.m. dial, for awhile now, but he’s slated to appear on The John Rothmann Program on Sunday June 21 in the 1 a.m. hour — real early Sunday morning or real late Saturday night, depending on how you think about it. Unless some huge national or international news story breaks and shunts Don aside (always a peril when booking on news talk), he’ll be there taking questions from callers for as long as John wants to cover the hard-boiled 1920s San Francisco of Dashiell Hammett. And if you miss the live broadcast, you can gumshoe around on the KGO website and find a streaming version for a week or two after the show airs.

While waiting for the interview (which you also can catch live on the web, by the way), check out the group photo above, taken during the first Tucson Book Fair in March. From left to right you’ll see Dennis McMillan, Bob Truluck, Don, and Reed Farrel Coleman posed in Mike Walsh’s Old Pueblo Books booth, and a good time was had by all. Reed is the author of The James Deans, among others, plus a novel written collaboration with Ken Bruen, Tower, coming up this fall from Busted Flush Press. Dennis is a living legend and publisher of Don’s book on cult crime writer Charles Willeford — if you want to order Willeford from Dennis pop him an email and work out details. Bob is the author of the hard-boiled novels Street Level, Saw Red, and The Art of Redemption and is a riot to hang out with — if you bump into him at a book deal ask him about the time he was jumped by a gang and came up swinging with a metal pipe. One of the funniest stories Don has heard in years. And Don also gives a personal plug for Truluck’s fiction — in particular, Bob probably comes closest among modern writers to equaling that off-the-wall comic voice that highlights Raymond Chandler’s tales for pulps such as Black Mask and Dime Detective. A true delight, with lots of gunplay and other stuff you want out of a hard-boiled read.

OFF TO TEXAS ONCE MORE

A big chuck of June for Don is going to be taken up with a road trip to Cross Plains, Texas, where he’s driving his longtime pal Donald Sidney-Fryer in to be one of the poet Guests of Honor for this year’s Robert E. Howard Days. Don himself was a Guest of Honor a few years back, and occasionally returns for the festival. If you’re in that barbarian-haunted hamlet midmonth, mosey over and say hello.

OUT-OF-PRINT BARBARIANS

The five-year contract with Wildside Press just ran out on Don’s two critical anthologies about Robert E. Howard, The Dark Barbarian and The Barbaric Triumph, and he’s decided to let them lapse out-of-print and see where the prices go on the collectors market. The Dark Barbarian has been in-print for twenty-five years, originally in a 1250 copy hardback edition from Greenwood Press — looks like the trade paperback reprint from Wildside moved out approximately 275 more copies. The Barbaric Triumph is going to be tougher to land someday, since it was only available in print-on-demand for that five-year window and critical anthologies don’t tend to sell fast — the Wildside hardback seems to have sold approximately 150 copies while the trade paperback state edged close to 300 copies sold. Hardcore collectors have a perverse love for those low numbers, since they make the game all that much tougher and correspondingly more fun — and good hunting to the folk who didn’t get their copies while they were easy to order new.

SPEAKING OF NOTHING

During Don’s signing for the new hardback edition of The Dashiell Hammett Tour in Green Apple Books in March, Kevin Hunsanger asked the question every book collector wants to know, as outlined above: What was the print run? Kevin operates Green Apple and also serves as the Book Guy for the morning show on KFOG, and Don always thinks of him as one of the hardcore collector types for hard-boiled and noir items. Vince Emery was in the audience and had the official answer: 1080 copies. To which Don responded, “That’s nothing.”

Vince originally shot for a run of 1500 copies, but the difference was ruined in the bindery, with barely over a thousand available for sale. To put this in perspective, in October 1982 Don released an earlier edition of the tour book in a print run of 2082 copies — all those sold through months before he did a reprint in November 1984, and if memory serves this was long before Amazon came along to make book-buying a breeze. The two City Lights printings (in 1991 and 1994) sold an unknown number of copies, but somewhere in the 3000 or 4000 plus range. Only the true first edition of the Hammett tour book from 1979 has lower numbers — 313 copies, a slim saddle-stapled booklet in red covers (the numbers on that one are so low that many book dealers don’t even seem to know it exists, with most stating that the second edition from 1982 is the first edition).

Since a lot of collectors apparently regard the first hardcover printing of a book as more desirable than a paperback first edition (Don picked this idea up while doing various articles for Firsts: The Book Collector’s Magazine), if you want one of the 1080 copies, get it fast. Sure, Vince is going to do reprints, in trade paperback and maybe even hardback if he feels like it. But the first hardback is limited to those 1080 copies — distinctly marked by a typo on page 47 that’s going to be corrected in the reprints. If you just want a copy to self-guide yourself around town, any edition will do, of course — this info is merely tossed out for the people who are pursuing the grand old book collecting game.

THE ONION SAYS

By the way, another review of the Vince edition just appeared in The Onion — written by Sean McCourt, who walked the mean streets on the same tour as Ace Atkins about a year ago. Per norm, the review got cut down in editorial, but you can catch the full write-up on Sean’s blog.

THAT ESSAY FROM 1986

MAY 2009 NEWS

HAMMETT WALKS EVERY SUNDAY THIS MONTH

After tons of news items about books and signings all year, let’s keep the May news kind of simple. You want to take the tour for the first time or after a hiatus of fifteen or twenty years, just show up on a Sunday this month with a tenspot at the ready, like it says on the Tour Page. Rain or shine. After more than thirty years on the mean streets, Don isn’t daunted by some stinking rain.

BACK TO THE MECHANICS LIBRARY

A couple of month ago Don sat in on a reading at the Mechanics Library in the first  block of Post Street, covering a section of his neo-Black Mask yarn from the new anthology San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics. On Tuesday May 2, 6 p.m. he returns to do a talk and signing for the new hardback edition of The Dashiell Hammett Tour book. Mechanics Library members get in free, the general public gets to shell out $12.

The round of signings for the tour book has been fast and furious — check out the shots this time, all taken during a joint appearance with Ace Atkins in the Borders on Union Square. Lots more photos to come, including a ton taken during the first gathering of the Hammett Flash Mob. Plus a couple more nice little blurbs and reviews for the tour book have appeared on the web, from Duane Swierzynski, one of the current noir guys holed up in Philly, and Thomas Burchfield, who has been hanging around the San Francisco crime/noir and swing music scene for a few years now.

AND THE "PORKY" GROUT MEMORIAL AWARD GOES TO

our good pal Mike Humbert, who was plowed down by a car while minding his own business and crossing the street up in Chico a few weeks ago. You may know of Mike because he hosts the Hammett website linked off the Tour Page — and he’s also the guy who did the snazzy maps for the new hardback of the Hammett tour book. We’re glad to report that Mike is out of the hospital and recovering, so he can plonk his gumshoes back on the mean streets sooner than later. Mike also gets credit for Best Hard-boiled Presence of Mind Moment — when he woke up in the hospital his first words were, “Someone really wanted me off this case. . . .”

APRIL 2009 NEWS

LAST MONTH IN TUCSON

TOUR ON PALM SUNDAY

If you can’t wait for the set of walks on each and every Sunday in May, Don is slipping on his gumshoes for the usual four-hour tour beginning at noon on Sunday April 5. Just show up with a tenspot, like it says on the Tour Page. And since Palm Sunday is the anniversary of Charles Willeford’s death, now twenty-one years ago, Don will be sure to add-in the Powell Hotel on the walk, the place Willeford was staying in San Francisco when he was working on his first novel.

ACE ATKINS AND DEVIL’S GARDEN

We’ve been blurbing it like hell for months now, so don’t miss the official launch party for the new Ace Atkins novel Devil’s Garden in “M” is for Mystery, San Mateo, Thursday April 2 from 7:00-8:00p.m. — a superb fictional recreation of the Fatty Arbuckle case in the St. Francis Hotel, with a Pinkerton’s op named Samuel Dashiell Hammett working the streets — without close second the best handling of Hammett as a character in a novel that Don has ever read. Drop in and get your copy of the novel signed on the official publication date. As Elmore Leonard put it, “Keep an eye on Ace Atkins, he can write rings around most of the names in the crime field.”

Plus Don will be signing copies of the new edition of the Dashiell Hammett Tour book for anyone wanting it John Hancocked. And the rumor mill has it that other local crime writers are planning to show for this one, including Mark Coggins, who just did a snazzy review of the tour book on The Rap Sheet — and while you’re surfing that site don’t miss the interview with Ace they’ve got posted.

HAMMETT FLASH MOB

After San Mateo signing wraps up, Ace and Don will be shooting up to San Francisco straight for The Ha-Ra Bar in 875 Geary Street, between Hyde and Larkin, to talk Hammett and the hard-boiled with anyone who wants to show up. Think of this as a reprise of the old Maltese Falcon Society which Don launched many years ago, only without the bulky trappings. No membership fees. No entrance fees. Just bring money to buy your official poison from Carl the Bartender and hang out and talk crime movies and novels until the city makes the place shut down. So, 9:00 or 9:30p.m. and straight ahead for four hours or so. Books signed if you’ve got ’em, opinions liquored up and spilled on the floor. Big fun.

BORDERS ON UNION SQUARE

If you can’t make the Ace signing in San Mateo, you get another chance 7:00p.m. April 3, when the Borders on the n.w. corner of Union Square will host the exclusive San Francisco signing for Devil’s Garden — in the next block up from where the notorious Fatty Arbuckle party rocked the St. Francis. Putnam’s is only parachuting Ace in for these two days, so seize your chance to get the novel signed while it’s hot off the presses, in the city the action takes place — immediately after the Borders event Ace is off to L.A., then starts working his way back east via Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale and Murder by the Book in Houston and other points of interest. Don will be sitting in on that one, too, so if you want any and all editions of the tour book signed, come on down.

AND LATER ON PALM SUNDAY

After guiding the Hammett tour up and down the mean streets on Palm Sunday, Don is quick-stepping over for a talk and signing for the Dashiell Hammett Tour in City Lights Books — Sunday April 5 starting at 5:00p.m. The previous edition of the tour book came out under the City Lights imprint, of course, and has been climbing in price for the last few years — Ace tells Don that he had to shell out about fifty bucks for a copy when he was researching Devil’s Garden. And now you can get the best edition to date, the first one ever in hardcover, for only $19.95.

MARCH 2009 NEWS

***3/14 UPDATE***

NIX THE 540 CLUB

Just a quick note to those who had planned on attending Don's official launch of the Dashiell Hammett Tour book at the 540 Club — the venue and date have been changed. It's now at Green Apple Books, on Thursday, March 26 at 7:00-8:00p.m. That's a week later than previously stated. Pass the word, and learn more about the book and Don's other media and signing appearances at this MSNBC write-up.

HAMMETT TOUR COMING UP

And Don informs that he has a Hammett Tour booked for Palm Sunday, April 5. Anyone who can't wait for the usual tours throughout May, bring a tenspot and some walking shoes to the usual meeting place.

NOIR KISS-OFF

The series of signings for the new Akashic Press anthology San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics is winding down, with the last one where Don is set to appear slated for 7 p.m. Tuesday March 3 in “M” is for Mystery in San Mateo. Don will be reading from the Nob Hill knock-off/Palace Hotel section of his story found in that book, plus the excellent neo-noir writer Dominic Stansberry will read from his story in the earlier collection San Francisco Noir  (now in a third printing from Akashic). Peter Maravelis, editor for these books, will be on hand to moderate the mayhem.

And it looks like a sure bet that the very first copies of the new hardcover edition of The Dashiell Hammett Tour from Vince Emery Productions will be on sale, for those who can’t wait a minute more. The book looks great, and this edition marks the first time ever in hardback — more photos, brand new maps, every word subjected to a lineup and blackjacked into submission. And thanks to Vince’s publishing savvy, only $19.95. The tour book has been out of print for several years now and previous editions have been climbing in value — Ace Atkins tells Don that he had to shell out about fifty bucks a year or two back to land a secondhand copy of the earlier City Lights edition. Twenty bucks for the best edition ever, in durable hardcover, seems like a damn good deal.

OFF TO TUCSON

If you hit the Tucson Book Fair you’ll find Don sitting on a panel with Dennis McMillan and Lono Waiwaiolo at 10 a.m. on Saturday March 14 — of course, some programming genius slated that panel opposite a talk with the legendary hard-boiled writer Elmore Leonard, so Don can’t blame anyone for blowing off his panel and seeing what Elmore has to say this month. Copies of the new Hammett tour book will be for sale at the Dennis McMillan table, and Don will be around the whole weekend, hobnobbing with the usual posse of McMillan writers. If you’re around, say hello.

QUICK STOPOVER IN SCOTTSDALE

En route to Tucson Don is dropping into the Poisoned Pen Mystery Bookstore in Scottsdale on Friday March 13, 7p.m. — Patrick Millikin will be conducting the interview, copies of the new hardcover Hammett tour book will be on hand for signing. Patrick has been to San Francisco and gumshoed the town with Don, so he ought to come up with some good questions. If you’re in the area but can’t make it to the Tucson Book Fair, drop into the Poisoned Pen.

MEANWHILE, ON THE MEAN STREETS OF FRISCO

For anyone who can’t hop out to Tucson for the weekend, you’ll find Don’s longtime pal, the poet Donald Sidney-Fryer, doing a talk and signing for his new omnibus The Atlantis Fragments in Borderlands Bookstore on Valencia Street, Saturday March 14 from 5 to 7 p.m. — if Don wasn’t booked opposite Elmore Leonard, he’d be there for certain.

Speaking of longtime pals, if you are free at 7p.m. on Thursday March 5 pop into City Lights Bookstore for the book release party for The Space Between, a new chapbook of stories by John Law about climbing bridges, one of the things John Law does best. Don has known the inveterate bridge climber since 1977 and many adventures in The Suicide Club, and with any luck will be able to drop in for that party, at least.

THE WOMAN CHASER

Oh, yeah, it’s worth noting here that for the showing of the film The Woman Chaser based on the Charles Willeford novel which Don introduced for Pacific Film Archive on February 28, bringing to a flashy end the series One-Two Punch: Pulp Writers on Film, Joe McSpadden, executive producer, dropped in and took questions after the credits rolled. An unexpected and very pleasant surprise. Joe told Don that in addition to the 87 minute version screened there is another cut running about 94 minutes, and a full chronological version of everything shot running about 200 minutes — only two copies of that are extant, one for Joe and the other for star Patrick Warburton. And while the theatrical release version of the movie is in black-and-white, it was shot on color stock, so, yes, a color version is hovering out there, too. All Don could think was, hey, could you guys ever knock a deluxe DVD package out of the park. . . . Let’s hope it comes about someday — the movie is a near-perfect capture of the Willeford novel, a really fine film.

BACK FROM TUCSON

When Don gets back from Tucson, the fun really starts. On Sunday March 22 from 2:00 to 3:00p.m. you’ll find Don signing his Dashiell Hammett Tour book in Barnes & Noble in Colma, located at 119 Colma Blvd in the Metro Center off the 280 freeway. Not a bar, alas, but they have a coffee shop inside the store, which is almost as good.

Meanwhile, the official launch party for the new Dashiell Hammett Tour book will kick off in Green Apple Books on Thursday March 26, at 6:30p.m. Don will talk, sign books for anyone who wants a copy. Again, no bar, but it ought to be tremendously entertaining.

ACE ATKINS BACK IN TOWN

Next up is an event not to be missed, as Don sits in on the official launch party for the new Ace Atkins novel Devil’s Garden in “M” is for Mystery, San Mateo, Thursday April 2 from 7:00-8:00p.m. — a superb fictional recreation of the Fatty Arbuckle case in the St. Francis Hotel with a Pinkerton’s op named Samuel Dashiell Hammett gumshoeing his way through the mystery. Ace has been making a name for himself with his recent series of novels based on real-life crimes, and this one keeps the same high standard, so fresh it seems like an entirely new style of mystery novel. As George Pelecanos said, “Ace Atkins writes like a crime beat reporter jacked on passion and ambition.” Come on down and get your copy of the novel signed on the official publication date.

HAMMETT FLASH MOB

After the signing in San Mateo wraps up, Ace and Don will be heading into San Francisco straight for The Ha-Ra Bar — a bar! — in 875 Geary Street, between Hyde and Larkin, to talk Hammett and the hard-boiled with anyone who wants to show up. Think of this as a reprise of the old Maltese Falcon Society which Don launched many years ago, only without the bulky trappings. No membership fees. No entrance fees. Just bring money to buy your official poison from Carl the Bartender and hang out and talk crime movies and novels until the city makes the place shut down. So, 9:00 or 9:30p.m. and straight ahead for four hours or so.

BORDERS ON UNION SQUARE

If you can’t make the Ace signing in San Mateo, you get another chance 7:00p.m. April 3, when the Borders on the n.w. corner of Union Square will host the exclusive San Francisco signing for Devil’s Garden — in the next block up from where the notorious Fatty Arbuckle party rocked the St. Francis. Putnam’s is only parachuting Ace in for a couple of days, so seize your chance to get the novel signed while it’s hot off the presses — immediately after the Borders event Ace is off to L.A., then starts working his way back east via Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale and Murder by the Book in Houston. Don will be at Borders (presuming the previous night of Hammett Flash Mobbing doesn’t do him in) and will be glad to sign copies of the new tour book. But he’s around town and not hard to find — Ace is the guy to grab the John Hancock from this time.

On the heels of the Borders event, you’ll find another talk/signing for the Dashiell Hammett Tour in City Lights Books, Sunday April 5 at 5:00p.m. — with more signings being scheduled as we speak.

THE END OF THE CIMMERIAN

Finally for this epic round of news coverage, after five years Leo Grin has closed shop on his terrific magazine The Cimmerian, devoted to the life and writings of Texan Robert E. Howard. Don has been heavily involved with this publication from the beginning, contributing essays, letters, providing contacts — it’s almost as if it was his very own magazine, only he wasn’t doing the brutal work involved. On the Links page you can find a list of all Don’s actual appearances in The Cimmerian, for anyone interested — and if you want copies at the original price, you need to grab them before winter rolls around again. Leo is carrying his backlist for a few more months and then plans to pulp any copies left, and move on. Better to get them now than rely on the tender mercies of eBay later. . . .

FEBRUARY 2009 NEWS

NOIR VALENTINE IN THE HA-RA

The more or less official launch party for San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics takes place Saturday February 14 — Valentine’s Day — beginning at 8 p.m. in The Ha-Ra Bar in 875 Geary between Hyde and Larkin. If you’re over 21 years old and have had enough romance for the day, pop on in for readings by Don, Craig Clevenger, David Corbett, Sin Sorrocco, Dominic Stansberry, John Shirley and editor Peter Maravelis — free to get in, but Carl the Bartender may charge you a couple of bucks for drinks, you know how it is.

The next SFNoir2 affair Don will sit in on will be 7 p.m. Tuesday March 3 at “M” is for Mystery in San Mateo — where it looks as if advance copies of the new hardcover edition of The Dashiell Hammett Tour from Vince Emery Productions will be on sale, if the printing presses are running hot. Vince showed up for the Noir City event on January 31 with an advance reading copy in hand, and we’re plotting out a round of local signings — with a return to “M” is for Mystery on Thursday April 2 at 7 p.m. being a good one to put on your calendar, since Don will be doing a joint appearance with Ace Atkins, in town for the launch of his exciting new crime novel Devil’s Garden, which features Pinkerton’s op Dashiell Hammett sleuthing his way through the Fatty Arbuckle caper.

And after that April 2 signing wraps up, Ace and Don intend to return to the mighty Ha-Ra (everybody’s favorite dive bar) by 9 p.m. or so to drink with any Hammett fans that care to show up — consider that the first more or less official meeting of the Hammett Flash Mob. Bring books to get signed or just come on down to talk Hammett and the hardboiled until the swinging door slams shut.

BIG READ IN BOISE

Now, this doesn’t happen every day, but if you’re in Boise Tuesday February 17 you can catch Don doing a couple of talks in connection with that burg hosting a Big Read for a certain classic novel titled The Maltese Falcon. First round will be 11:45 till 1:15 in the Boise City Club, capped off by a 7 p.m. talk in the Boise Public Library. Never having been in Boise before, Don intends to be wildly entertaining, per norm.

MIAMI BLUES IN BERKELEY

As soon as he hops off the plane back from Boise, Don is set to introduce a screening of Miami Blues on Thursday February 19 in the Pacific Film Archive, based on the modern classic by the great Charles Willeford. Plus on Saturday February 28 Don’ll do the honors again for a showing of “The Woman Chaser” starring Patrick Warburton, based on one of Willeford’s wall-to-wall-fun paperback original novels. In ten minutes intro time per film, can Don tell you something you don’t already know about the cinema of Willeford? Sure.

TUCSON BOUND IN MARCH  

In addition to whatever signings get booked for the thirtieth anniversary edition of The Dashiell Hammett Tour book, if you happen to attend the Tucson Book Fair you’ll find a few copies for sale. About 10 a.m. on the morning of Saturday March 14 Don is set to appear on a noir panel with Dennis McMillan and Lolo Waiwaiole, and he’ll be hanging around the rest of the fair, ready to talk books and sign anything you may care to haul in, from Willeford or long out of print copies of The Literary World of San Francisco, issues of Firsts: The Book Collectors Magazine or The Cimmerian.  

JANUARY 2009 NEWS

NO EXTRA TOURS, LOTS OF NOIR

No extra walks have been set for this month, but if you want some noir, buckle your seat belts. Don returns to the Mechanics Library for a reading — he’ll do the underground section from his story in San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics and other folk will read from other stories in that book and from San Francisco Noir, all moderated by editor Peter Maravelis. Mechanics Library members get in free, the general public needs to shell out $12. (By the way, whoever wrote the blurbs lists Don as co-founder of the Suicide Club — nope. While a member in good standing, of course, the founder was Gary Warne, backed up by David Warren and Adrienne Burk and Nancy Prussia. Anything you hear otherwise just isn’t the truth — all other Suicide Club members come after.)

Also, local mystery maven Eddie Muller brings his Noir City film festival back to the Castro Theatre. On Saturday January 31 there will be a mass signing for the two San Francisco Noir books on the mezzanine, about 6 p.m., hauling in as many of the authors as possible. But if you can’t make that one, the Big Party for the SF Noir books will be held in the Ha-Ra Bar on Geary on Valentine’s Day, 8 p.m. and after, with readings, signings, and Carl the Bartender at the stick to provide for the thirsty. That is the official launch, with more local signings to follow.

TWO HUNDRED YEARS DOWN

Given that we’ve noted when writers such as Robert E. Howard and Donald Wandrei have reached the centenaries of their births, how about Edgar Allan Poe making it to 200 on January 19? If anyone is a mystery maven today, you can trace it back to Poe knocking together the genre back in the 1840s. Don visited the Poe House when he hit Philly for NoirCon last year, of course, and mentions the Dark Genius pretty regularly — the new edition of The Dashiell Hammett Tour book coming in March drops Poe’s name all over the place.

A GENERATION PASSES

We didn’t get News Pages up last fall in time to record the death of the great hard-boiled writer James Crumley on September 17 at the age of 68, or Tony Hillerman passing on October 26 at the age of 83 — and the year wrapped up with the sudden death of Donald Westlake on December 31, aged 75. Don never got the chance to meet Hillerman, but figures he turned out a series of about ten masterpieces in a row, from Listening Woman on up, then stumbled a bit in the book where he features the red-headed psycho killer (written in obvious homage to Charles Willeford), recovering after that, then settling into a solid groove for the rest of the run. Very hard to do, one of the most impressive performances in crime fiction.

Dennis McMillan told Don tales about Crumley for decades, so it felt as if he knew him — and he finally got to meet the man himself when he came through the Bay Area on a book tour a year or so back. During a talk in the “M” is for Mystery Bookstore in San Mateo, Don remembered Dennis’s stories about how Crumley was a writer on the Walter Hill film Extreme Prejudice, and Crumley trotted out anecdote after anecdote about shooting that movie and particularly about Maria Conchito Alonzo using the writer’s trailer as a dressing room. As a character, he was right up there with Willeford.

And Don was also lucky enough to meet Westlake — first with Dennis McMillan when they liberated Westlake from his publicist in Miami for a few hours, and again at a writers conference in Fort Lauderdale, which ended with Don buying the last round and Westlake agreeing he owed him a beer, next time they might meet. Somewhere around here is a postcard that reads, “Beer? Beer? Surely we can settle this in a civilized manner!” Completely delightful guy, author of many fine books — one relative dud Don checked from the library years ago was worth it just for the Dedication Page. You could tell Westlake did it fast for cash because he dedicated the novel To the guys and gals down at the I.R.S.