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OLD NEWS ARCHIVE
MAY 2010 NEWS
It doesn’t get any simpler than this: just like it says on the Tour Page, you’ll find a Hammett tour running each and every Sunday this month. Four hours. Ten bucks. If interested, just show up by noon. And remember the advice of the late, great Charles Willeford and make sure you wear comfortable shoes. BACK IN THE GUARDIAN AGAIN And a new article in the Bay Guardian covers the Hammett tour once more — one of the very earliest write-ups when Don first hit the mean streets thirty-three years ago also appeared in those pages. There may have been others over the decades, but nabbing the Best Tour of the Year in the BG’s annual awards a few years ago was memorable — that was the same year Joseph Alioto nabbed the Best Poet Who Used to be a Mayor citation. A good year.
APRIL 2010 NEWS
No extra walks this month anyone can just show up and do, but Don is leading a group by appointment on the side — however, hang on till May and you’ll find Hammett Tours every Sunday, just like it says on the Tour Page. The photo this time was snapped on the Valentine’s Day excursion, same as the shot last month.
MARCH 2010 NEWS
Last month the Hammett tour hit the mean streets on Valentine’s Day, encountering a gang of balloons — this month Don is once again slipping on the gumshoes to guide a walk on Palm Sunday, March 28, his usual tribute to the late great Charles Willeford, who passed away on Palm Sunday twenty-two years ago. If interested, pocket a tenspot and show up, following the directions on The Tour Page.
FEBRUARY 2010 NEWS
EIGHTY YEARS ON THE MEAN STREETS!
On Valentine’s Day in 1930 Alfred Knopf released Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon in its first edition. To celebrate this cornerstone of the hardboiled and noir making it to its eightieth anniversary, Don is offering the first Hammett tour of the year this Valentine’s, Sunday February 14 — four hours, ten bucks, the usual, same details as on the Tour Page. Anyone who wants to show up and contemplate the romance of Sam and Brigid is welcome — one of the few things on Valentine’s you won’t need reservations to attend!
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. The
grainy noir photo this time was taken during the annual 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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
And finally, after some seventeen years holding down the fort in Sam Spade’s
apartment in
JULY 2009 NEWS
NO EXTRA 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 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
JUNE 2009 NEWS
NO EXTRA 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.
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 OFF TO A big chuck of June for Don
is going to be taken up with a road trip to
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
And Brian Murphy, one of the new bloggers over on
The Cimmerian,
recently discovered Don’s 1986 essay on Stephen King from the book
Kingdom of Fear and has
something to say
about it. He doesn’t seem to realize that that essay was the middle
one of three, but we hope he’ll enjoy the pieces from Fear Itself
(1982) and Reign of Fear (1988) just as much, once he comes
across copies.
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
APRIL 2009 NEWS
LAST MONTH IN
In the photos to the left you’ll see Dennis McMillan catching a quick chat with
Elmore Leonard after his big interview, and Don doing a spur-of-the-moment
tribute to Ernest P. Worrell. The Tucson Book Fair offered lots of photo ops
—
more pics to follow in months to come.
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 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
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 BORDERS If you can’t make the Ace signing
in 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 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.
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 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 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 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, HAMMETT FLASH MOB After the signing in BORDERS ON UNION SQUARE If you can’t make the Ace signing in 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, The next SFNoir2 affair Don will sit in on will
be 7 p.m. Tuesday March 3 at
“M” is for Mystery in 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
As soon as he hops off the plane back from
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 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
Among all the other writers of that generation who died in 2008, Don also
met Jan Willem van de Wetering when he rolled through town a couple of years
ago, and the prolific Ed Hoch, who sold almost 1000 short stories. Dennis
McMillan had abandoned Don at his dealers table as the Bouchercon in
DECEMBER 2008 NEWS
SEPTEMBER 2008 NEWS
TOURS GALORE Just like it says on the
Tour Page, you'll find a Hammett walk offered at
noon every Sunday this month — grab ten bucks,
if interested, and show up. AND IN OCTOBER Some folk coming into town have given Don enough advance notice to toss an extra tour on the burner — Sunday October 5th, same routine as for the September walks. People who just missed this month’s tours can pocket ten bucks and join in — be on the n.w corner near the revolving “L” sculpture by noon, ready to gumshoe.
AUGUST 2008 NEWS DOG DAYS OF SUMMER No extra tours set for
this month, but just hang on for a few weeks and you’ll find a walk every
Sunday in September. Meanwhile,
Vince Emery is getting on with the
completely revised and updated version of Don’s
Dashiell Hammett Tour book, at this very moment putting together the
Index. This edition is set to have almost twice as many photos as any
previous version, with each and every sentence checked and triple-checked.
Get ready — it ought
to be swell. But if you’ve got to have some authentic noir this August or
bust, our pal Steve Seid over at the
Pacific Film
Archive has a series
devoted to the cinema of David Goodis running through the month. Fresh off
his trip to Goodis’ native burg of Philly for NoirCon in April, Don couldn’t
resist catching a couple of programs
—
he even recognized some of the location shots
in The Burglar
after gumshoeing all over Oh, yeah, The Burglar was introduced by
JULY 2008 NEWS
JUNE 2008 NEWS
MAY 2008 NEWS
WINNING THOSE AWARDS In the photo above you
can see Don posed with the three
Cimmerian Awards he has landed thus far
—
this shot being an alternate that wasn’t
used in
the new Cimmerian Awards issue coverage.
For that issue Don contributed numerous
blurbs as well as a short essay
comparing the Cimmerian Awards with
various trophies which belonged to the
late, great fantasy and science fiction
grandmaster Fritz Leiber
— in
fact, he sent in more blurb matter than
could be squeezed in. If you want the
story-behind-the-story of the
existential ordeal he experienced trying
to figure out what kind of photo to
take,
click here to read a mini-essay that
ended up on the magazine’s cutting room
floor. THE APRIL CIMMERIAN Also available now
is
the April 2008 issue of The Cimmerian,
which in addition to other features
offers a taste of the new French book on
Robert E. Howard in English translation.
You can order
Échos de Cimmérie to read Don’s
essay “The Feast Is Over” in French, or
you can read the American version in the
April issue of TC along with
two other pieces Fabrice Tortey has
lined up for his tribute to the creator
of Conan. LOCAL ACTION Don had a great
time at NoirCon last month, of course,
hanging out with Dennis McMillan and Ken
Bruen and company —
one little highlight was when George
Pelecanos spotted a copy of the Richard
Stark paperback original novel The
Outfit for Don to buy when they were
browsing in a warehouse-sized DON WANDREI AT 100 Last month saw the
centennial birthday of Donald A.
Wandrei, and our pal Morgan Holmes over
on the REHupa website did a nice
blog post pointing out several
reasons why Wandrei stands as one of the
more important figures in the history of
fantasy and science fiction. Surf over
to that post if you’re curious
— and
expect more Wandrei material here as his
centenary year marches on. And finally, just
like it says on the
Tour Page, you’ll find a Hammett
walk going every Sunday this month at
noon. Grab ten bucks, pick a Sunday,
show up and walk the walk
— that’s all
there is to it.
Anyone who wants to
track Don down at the
NoirCon in Philly will find him
hanging around the bar from April 3
through 6. Doesn’t look as if there will
be a formal panel devoted to Charles
Willeford during the convention, but
they have a “tribute” set for Sunday
morning and Don popped in a little essay
for the program book, spotlighting a
previously unreported quote that
Willeford fans will love. Say hello or
just come over and talk noir if you feel
like it. DON WANDREI HITS 100 April 20 of this month
marks the centennial birthday of fantasy
and science-fiction titan Donald A.
Wandrei, who was born on that date in
1908 (though we should mention that
April 20 actually irked Wandrei, since
he shared the day-of-month birth date
with Adolph Hitler). Our Hammett Tour
Don knew Wandrei pretty well, and
figures he may as well see what he can
do to recognize the centenary. First up
for this month you’ll find the article
“Collecting Donald Wandrei,” which
will give you a quick and easy overview
of his life and writings. For April Don is
offering only tours
by appointment, but you’ll find walks
offered every Sunday in May if you can
hang on till then. And if you’re in MARCH 2008 NEWS PALM SUNDAY Anyone who
wants to show up, willing to hand over a
tenspot, is welcome to join in the
Dashiell Hammett Tour offered on Palm
Sunday — that’s Sunday March 16 with a
noon start at the Main Library
as usual. No
reservations required or taken, just
make the scene by noon and walk that
hard-boiled walk. WILLEFORD
The tour this month is offered
in memoriam the great absurdist crime
writer Charles Willeford, who died on
Palm Sunday — March 27, 1988 — twenty
years ago. Don of course did the book
Willeford
on his life and works, and as always
recommends Willeford’s writing — books
such as
Miami
Blues,
The Burnt Orange Heresy,
Cockfighter
— as among the essential crime fiction
anyone with taste needs to read. Just
recently William Denton, founder of the
noir and hard-boiled chat group
RARA-AVIS, drifted into town and Don
as a courtesy to a fellow Willeford fan
took him around to see some Hammett
sites and also tossed in the Powell
Hotel on Powell Street, where Willeford
said he stayed when he wrote his first
novel. Don gets queries about Willeford
at this website pretty often, with some
folk late last year fired up with the
idea that they might be able to track
down some of the paintings and other
artwork Willeford is known to have
created. Don took the question to
Willeford’s widow Betsy, who answered:
“I never
saw any of them, except the Tab Hunter
construction he entered in the college
faculty art show. He may have thrown
them away himself, or Mary Jo may have
tossed them out the window of their
apartment. I'd asked him about the
paintings a few times but he didn't give
me a direct answer, so I stopped
asking.” Mary Jo Willeford was the
second wife, who purged Willeford’s
collection of books when he was
hospitalized at one point — this was
when they were living in the apartment
building that serves as the model for
the building where the characters live
in the long novel
The
Shark-Infested Custard.
Over the years Don has been amused by
the various guys who have read his book
and gone on rants suggesting that if
they
had been there to interview Willeford,
they would have gotten much more info
out of him than Don did. These guys are
genuine saps who just don’t understand
the accurate picture Don drew of
Willeford’s personality. If Willeford
didn’t want to answer a question, sorry,
he just didn’t answer the question —
didn’t matter if you were his own wife,
he just clammed up — though if he
thought you were a likely candidate for
some serious kidding, he’d tell you
whatever he felt like at the moment.
Yeah, he was a tough interview, but
ranks as one of the all-time greats.
Twenty years after his death, the cult
for his work remains as strong as ever. NOIRCON
Next up
for Don is an appearance at
NoirCon I in FEBRUARY 2008 NEWS NOTHING SHAKING ON THE MEAN STREETS Keeping his lazy streak
working overtime, Don isn’t doing any tours this month
where you can just show up, pay ten bucks, and walk the
walk. But he knows he needs to get the tour up and going
for the next thirty years, so he has chosen a date in
March — Sunday March 16, noon start
as usual — for a walk open to anyone who wants to go
on it. He picked that one out of the battered fedora
because it is Palm Sunday, which happens to be the date
the late great Charles
Willeford passed away. So, in memoriam of one of
Don’s favorite writers, the Hammett tour kicks back into
gear. Next month. AT THE NOIR PANEL A couple
of people came up to Don during the noir panel at the
Mechanics Institute last month to tell him that they had
emailed him off this website and never heard back. Who
knows what technological hurdle stood in the way at that
moment, but rest assured, if you send Don an email he
will answer it (so if you don’t hear back, try again —
don’t let technology stand in your way). Even if you are
one of those people who ask for a tour on Wednesday with
only two days advance notice, don’t worry, you’ll get an
answer — usually “No.” Think of those as like the Soup
Nazi on Seinfeld —
“No tour for you!” LATER IN THE YEAR After the
noir panel, Peter Maravelis told Don that the release
date for San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics
currently is set for September, so anyone who wants that
one has awhile to wait. Brief selections from that book
were read during the panel, with a range of authors and
periods ranging from Mark Twain through Hammett up to
William T. Vollmann, and lots in between.
JANUARY 2008 NEWS STAYING IN OUT OF THE RAIN No extra tours set for this month, but if you want to hear Don offer a few opinions on noir and hard-boiled fiction while staying dry at the same time, come on down to the Mechanics Institute in Post Street on January 24th for “San Francisco Noir: Past to Present.” Peter Maravelis, editor of the Akashic Press anthologies San Francisco Noir and the upcoming San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics, will moderate a discussion featuring Peter Plate, Craig Clevenger, Eddie “The Czar of Noir” Muller, Don and Joe Gores — not a bad line-up, so let’s hope no one gets jumped and blackjacked by a flu bug before the date. Free to Institute members, $10 for the general public. “KNIVES IN THE DARK” Don got invited to sit in on the Mechanics Institute noir fest because Maravelis decided to reprint his neo-Black Mask story “Knives in the Dark” from the Dennis McMillan anthology Measures of Poison in San Francisco Noir: The Classics good news for anyone who wants to read that one and didn’t want to shell out the original $30 cover price on the trade edition (much less the tags being asked on the out-of-print market these days). Don will read a couple of scenes from that story, concentrating on Frisco settings — after the panel he’ll take anyone who is interested a block over from the Mechanics Institute to show them the location of the bootlegger tunnels that feature at the end of the story. WHILE OVER IN FRANCE Fabrice Tortey is taking
pre-orders on the new critical and biographical
anthology about Robert E. Howard,
Echoes de
Cimmérie
— of course, it would
help if you read French to get the full value out of the
text, but Howard completists will want it regardless,
and there are lots of photos and illustrations lined up
for the English-only types. Don provided a ruminative
essay on Howard at one hundred years, “The Feast Is
Over” — now “La Fęte est finie” — to intro the section of new criticism devoted to
the creator of Conan.
DECEMBER 2007 NEWS THIRTY YEARS DOWN Other than some groups by appointment, no gumshoes are hitting the pavement of the mean streets this month, as thirty years eases quietly past — with year thirty-one to follow. The plans by Vince Emery to publish a completely revised and updated edition of the long out-of-print Dashiell Hammett Tour book are still rolling, don’t sweat it, although Vince got set back a few steps, delaying the release date until next year. When it is ready, we’ll let you know. Plus it looks as if Don’s neo-Black Mask story from Measures of Poison is poised for reprint in a more affordable trade paperback, for folk who haven’t had a chance to read it as yet. And at this moment Don is busy doing a short article about Charles Willeford and Dennis McMillan, some info never before seen in print, for the program book of Noir Con I — since Dennis will be a Guest of Honor at that gathering, it looks as if Don will be jumping on a plane for Philly in April 2008 to pay proper respect and ride around with McMillan posse. NOVEMBER 2007 NEWS
Nothing extra shaking on the mean streets this month, although Don did his cicerone bit for a large tour by appointment negotiated by that organization whose origins go back to rescuing child slaves from the Tongs. Various people, though, still keep popping in emails requesting a tour in two or three days — with Don’s favorite the guy who asked about joining up with the walk “next Wednesday.” There is no walk next Wednesday. Any tours offered where folk can show up for $10 each appear here on the News Page, and if you are hauling into town and want to have one of those tossed on the burner, then you need to give Don at least a month’s lead time to announce it here. If you’re more a Caspar Gutman type with some bigger bills to toss around, then sudden negotiations may be made, and of course if you have your own large group ready to walk then gumshoes can kiss the asphalt anytime you want.
OCTOBER 2007 NEWS
Looks like October is going to
be nothing but tours by appointment, including the
sold-out walk Don is leading for the
Pleasanton Library “Big Read” project covering that
enduring novel The Maltese Falcon. With rain
already sweeping in, November and December probably also
will be given over to private groups willing to brave
the elements, but if any walks open to all pop up,
they’ll be listed here in the news. LAST MONTH'S NEWS The walks offered
every Sunday in September brought back
Mike Breiding after many a moon. One of the almost
legendary Breiding clan that hovered on the edges of
LOST WORLDS STRIKES AGAIN The fourth issue
of the journal
Lost Worlds, devoted to the life and work of
the California fantasist and poet Clark Ashton Smith, is
finally available —
if interested, copies may be had from the bookseller
Gavin Smith.
Retailing for $15, the new issue covers the
fantasy-horror story “Necromancy in Naat,” with detailed
info on what CAS wrote for the first draft as well as
what he cut out and what he changed in order to sell the
tale to the pulps. That’s the bulk of the contents, but
you’ll also find a memorial tribute Don wrote for the
late, great Charles K. Wolfe, a pioneer CAS scholar as
well as Don’s English advisor back in college in
SEPTEMBER 2007 NEWS TOURS ALL THIS MONTH Just like it says on the Tour Page, you’ll find a Dashiell Hammett Tour offered at noon every Sunday this month. If interested, pocket a tenspot and meet Don near the revolving “L” sculpture located on the northwest corner of the Main Library in 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco’s Civic Center. No reservations required. Just show up. AUGUST 2007 NEWSTWO TOURS THIS MONTH Anyone who wants to show up with a tenspot in hand is welcome to join tours set for Sunday August 5thand Sunday August 19th— no reservations needed, just follow the directions on the Tour Page. And if you can’t make it to either of those, in September you’ll find walks heading out into the mean streets once stalked by Sam Spade every Sunday in the month. JULY 2007 NEWSOFF TO DENVER Don is heading over to Denver for a good chunk of July, so no extra tours this month, open to just anyone who shows up — the tours arranged for groups by appointment are still rolling, of course. But you can mark your calendars now for Sunday August 5 and Sunday August 19, two tours with a noon start just like normal where all you have to do is show up with a tenspot in hand, everyone welcome. And in September you’ll find tours offered every Sunday in the month. BACK FROM TEXAS Last month Don drove out to Cross Plains, Texas, for the annual Robert E. Howard Days. His plan was to pick up the Cimmerian Award he got a couple of years ago for his critical anthology The Barbaric Triumph, but what ho!, in this year’s voting he ended up copping two more awards. He was presented with the Black River Award for discovering the typescript of Howard’s first book, A Gent from Bear Creek, plus a cache of heavily-annotated books owned by Howard’s father — discoveries he wrote up in the August and September 2006 issues of The Cimmerian. Even better, he garnered a Black Circle Award for Life Achievement in Howard studies, the Big Kahuna of Howard-related awards. Very nice, and Don thanks all the folk who voted. He doesn’t know if he’ll be back in the running for any more Cimmerian awards in the future, but these three make for quite a haul already. Barbaric. Heavy marble bases. Cool skulls.
AFTER THE ACE TOUR Last month Don did a tour for crime writer Ace Atkins and a bunch of other folk who showed up, ready to walk, and Ace recently popped in this update: “Just finished rereading The Maltese Falcon again. I can tell you I saw the book in a whole new – 3-D – way after the tour. I could get away from the engrained images from the film and see Spade’s apartment and the town at the time. I think your point about San Francisco being a new/fresh city in the ’20s is a major detail that’s easy to forget.” After the walk Don and Ace and a couple of other guys adjourned to the Ha-Ra Bar on Geary Street, where they were joined for some hard-boiled talk and drinks by Bill Arney — and better yet, Carl the bartender. Carl is a prolific reader of detective novels and put the crew to the test with question after question. Luckily, Carl already owned a couple of Ace’s novels and Don knows enough about this stuff to hang in there when the questions got tough, so not only did they not get 86ed, but Carl stood them to a round of drinks. Thanks, Carl. JUNE 2007 NEWSAN ACE TOUR FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 3rd Anyone who wants to show up at the n.w. corner of the Main Library in Civic Center at noon is welcome to join crime writer Ace Atkins on a hard-boiled walk through the good old mean streets of Frisco. Ace will be in the burg promoting his new novel of Florida noir, White Shadow, and wants to see the sites where Hammett hammered out the bedrock and erected the gallows for the genre, if you know what we mean. Grab a tenspot, come on down and meet one of the up-and-coming novelists in the field as a bonus treat. TEXAS, YET AGAIN Immediately after Don wraps up having a few drinks with Ace after the tour on the 3rd, he’s off to Cross Plains, Texas for the annual Robert E. Howard Days. He’s going to sign copies of his new chapbook Yours for Faster Hippos for the folk who want a John Hancock, and finally plans to haul back the Cimmerian Award he nabbed a couple of years ago, which has been on display in the Howard House and Museum. If you’re anywhere near that little Texas town, come on over and say hello. MAY 2007 NEWS EVERY SUNDAY THIS MONTH You’ll find a Hammett tour offered every Sunday this month, just like it says on the Tour Page. All you have to do is show up at noon, a tenspot in hand, hand it over and walk the walk behind the guide who has been doing this routine now for thirty years and probably knows what he’s up to by now. Thirty years on the mean streets. Experience. Meaningful experience. And lots of it. SUNDAY, JUNE 3rd Okay, you know how it is when you offer tours for a whole month, but for some reason various people just can’t make it out for those?Don does — and he was considering saying “No” to some people asking for a tour early in June, but then Ace Atkins threw his two bits into the ring. Ace is one of the newer crime writers, whose first mysteries had a blues music theme to them, and he’s going to be in the burg on June 3rd and wants to do the tour. Don first heard Ace’s name dropped by his pal, blues harmonica great R. J. Mischo, and figures it is a courtesy to all of us who love hanging out in blues bars everywhere to make sure Ace sees the essential Hammett sites. Anyone else who wants to join in is more than welcome, just show up — same price, meeting point, etc. as for the regular tours. With any luck the other folk who wanted an early June tour will show up for this one, and Ace’s train will roll into town on time. If it’s just Ace and Don, though, the tour goes on. BOOKS ROLLING LIKE TRAINS Don’s chapbook celebrating the 30th anniversary of his essay “Conan vs. Conantics” was made up in April, and ought to be ready to order, for those interested in that sort of thing. Work on the 30th anniversary edition of the Dashiell Hammett Tour book is coming down to the wire — Jo Hammett just turned in a new introduction written expressly for the book, and Don is slaving over his updating and revisions. Come fall, the best edition ever should be available in bookstores everywhere. APRIL 2007 NEWS ANOTHER MONTH FOR GOOFING OFF
No extra tours set for April,
but if you hang on till May
there’s a walk every
Sunday in the
month. Don is kind
of enjoying his thirtieth anniversary
year so far, and while for walking the
walk it doesn’t look like
he’s doing much, he is at work on
a new edition of the
Dashiell Hammett
Tour guide book,
excellent for use if you end up in town
in a month like this month when
there’s no guided gumshoeing
slated for the mean streets. The first of several books or chapbooks planned for publication this year is almost ready to roll — Yours for Faster Hippos: Thirty Years of “Conan vs. Conantics”. Yeah, it has been three decades since Don’s now-classic essay on the Lancer Conan series first saw print, and this booklet collects that one along with a sequel about the Bran Mak Morn pastiches, plus commentaries on the essays and the era in which they were written. A Cimmerian Library chapbook, limited to 100 numbered copies — if interested, get your order in fast.
MARCH 2007 NEWS NOTHING EXTRA No extra tours have popped up for the month, but various groups are scheduling walks for later in the year — the most intriguing one so far set for November, for a benevolent society that has its origins in the 1800s rescuing child slaves from the Tongs. Pretty cool resumé.
FEBRUARY 2007 NEWS WALKING THE WALK Once again, all the Hammett tours this month are being done for groups by appointment, but check back from time to time — any extra tours open to the public will be posted here. Or if you can hang in there until May, you’ll get a walk every Sunday in the month. JANUARY In retrospect, last month feels like it was a solid round of parties. The boxer-poet/writer-fighter Floyd Salas hit 76 years on the mean streets, current noir master Jim Nisbet turned 60, and the NoirCity5 festival at the Castro Theatre gave Don an excuse to hang out with Eddie Muller for some after-show drinks. Eddie (age unknown) just took over as the mystery reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle and you can find his finished columns posted on his website. A brutal job, but someone has to do it. No less a presence than Dennis McMillan hauled into the berg for Nisbet’s birthday bash, and mentioned that he is thinking seriously about doing another massive anthology to celebrate when his press reaches its twenty-fifth anniversary in a year or two. One of Don’s favorite books is Dennis’ twentieth anniversary anthology, Measures of Poison. Don had a neo-Black Mask story in that one, and even attended the Bouchercon in Austin for the book’s debut in 2002, signing copies along with ten other contributors also in attendance. Those Bouchercon copies with the eleven autographs seem to keep rising in value, but if you don’t know who was there, figuring out some of the signatures can be a real mystery. If you’ve landed one of those and can’t make out the John Hancocks, Don tells you who’s who right here:
AVAILABLE THIS MONTH For those of you who remember the glory days of Creature Features on Channel 2, former host John Stanley (1082 Grand Teton Drive, Pacifica, CA 94044) is bringing out the new book I Was a TV Horror Host at the end of the month, covering the years he and the legendary Bob Wilkins piloted that late night horror fest through the airwaves. 556 photos. 210 pages in an 8 x 11 format. $25 plus $3 postage and handling. Includes interviews with the pre-governator Ah–nold, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Ray Bradbury, Elvira, Vincent Price and many more — and apparently Don himself is going to make an appearance, courtesy the short film The Attack of the Incredible Killer Scarecrow he shot as a mini-feature for the show many moons ago. Don appeared on the program several times, and was on hand for the very last episode ever aired. Those were the days — now resurrected for CF fans everywhere.
JANUARY 2007 NEWS THIRTY YEARS UP AND DOWN THE MEAN STREETS! Suddenly it is 2007, and what do you know, Don has been leading the dauntless Hammett Tour up and down the streets of San Francisco for nothing less than thirty years. Hmmm, guess this milestone may call for some special activities, so stay tuned — for the moment, the best plan going is that Vince Emery (publisher of Hammett’s Lost Stories) has slated for fall publication the long-promised updated and revised edition of The Dashiell Hammett Tour book. TOURS BY APPOINTMENT This month Don is only doing tours by appointment, notably one for the Arney Clan, in town for the wedding of the notorious Bill the Hat, inhabitant of Sam Spade’s apartment. Those of you (and there are some) who have been waiting for Bill the kick the bucket so you have a chance at the apartment, don’t get too excited — Bill’s keeping the Hammett digs. He’ll stash the wife somewhere, Nick-and-Nora like. And a reminder: if you’re drifting into town and want to do the tour when it’s not otherwise slated, give Don at least a month’s notice so he has a chance to give it a plug here. If you have your own group and want to arrange a tour, just pop in an email. META-TOUR Don has known that the full four-hour tour he does is a meta-tour for a longgg time (that’s why he has mercy on groups by appointment and will shorten it to suit), but it’s always nice to discover that others can connect the dots and reach the same realization. Mike Humbert sent in a link to the most recent Internet write-up, where the on-tour references to the Wyatt Earp Woman, the Hammett-Can’t-Cook Woman, the Guy Who Thought the Plaque in Burritt Alley Meant that Sam Spade was REAL all clicked on the old light bulb. Yes, it is a meta-tour — and what a meta-tour. DECEMBER 2006 NEWS IF YOU’RE FAST There’s a tour open to all on Sunday December 3rd — same details as on the Tour Page. A couple coming in from Australia asked for this one (giving Don enough lead time to get it in the News last month), and will welcome the company of other hard-boiled tourists ready to gumshoe those mean streets. THE KING OF HORROR Back in the day Don made a good part of his rep as a critic by writing essays about Stephen King, as the Maine writer began his climb up the bestseller ladder. Don’s article from 1986, “Stephen King: The Good, the Bad, and the Academic,” recently saw reprint in Stephen King from Chelsea House, one in the series of Bloom’s Modern Critical Views selected by Harold Bloom, the distinguished Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University. If you follow that sort of thing, there you go. This essay originally appeared in Kingdom of Fear from Underwood-Miller, and is number two of three — the first one saw print in Fear Itself from Underwood-Miller in 1982, with the concluding piece, as Don gladly bailed out of essaying King, published in Reign of Fear from Underwood-Miller in 1988. Don confesses that he seldom thinks about King anymore (notably, he actually forgot King’s name during his stand-up routine for the legendary Tentacle Sessions), and declined an offer to do the entry on the author of Carrie for the Greenwood Press encyclopedia Supernatural Literature of the World (although he did contribute several other entries). The only recent incident that almost made Don itch to get back in the King game again came as King and John Irving protested the idea that J. K. Rowling might kill off Harry Potter in her next novel. Someone pointed out to King that he himself had killed off many characters, not least the poor dog Cujo. King is quoted as responding: “You want to be nice and say ‘I’m sorry you didn’t like that,’ but I’m thinking to myself number one, he was a dog not a person, and number two, the dog wasn’t even real. I made that dog up, it was a fake dog, it was a fictional dog, but people get very, very involved.” How about that? Harry Potter is real. Now that is News! Do you think, anotheressay on King. . . ? Naw. THE MAN FROM CROSS PLAINS Almost at the last minute, Don realizes that he never gave The Man from Cross Plains, a tribute to Robert E. Howard edited by Dennis McHaney that appeared earlier this year, a blurb — and time is running out. Released as a benefit book to raise money for Cross Plains, Texas after the disastrous fire a year ago, this title will only remain in print for a few more months and then will be withdrawn, so if you want it, get it now. Don contributes an essay, “The Shadow of the Dragon,” on nothing less than Conan and Bruce Lee.
AND JUST
IN CONAN, SWORD IN HAND, SCALES WALL STREET As a fine concluding flourish for the centennial of his birth, on December 13th Robert E. Howard grabbed a write-up from John Miller in the Wall St. Journal, and Don’s seminal essay on Howard as a hard-boiled pulp fantasist gets referenced. And in a blog post for National Review, Miller adds some more thoughts on the subject. NOVEMBER 2006 NEWS COUPLE OF TOURS Anyone wanting to risk some rain is welcome to join up on tours for Sunday November 12th at noon or Sunday December 3rd at noon — ten bucks, same details as on the Tour Page. THAT HAMMETT HEARTTHROB Lillian Hellman is coming back to town via the A.C.T. doing a revival of her classic play The Little Foxes, which runs through most of the month. Don is cooking up a deal with A.C.T. where you can take the tour then end up at the theatre for the matinee performance — details are sketchy at the moment, but will be posted on the A.C.T. website, and tickets will be sold through their box office. If interested, check it out — a little culture never hurt anybody.
OCTOBER 2006 NEWS NOTHING COOKING ON THE MEAN STREETS Yeah, we know it would be a swell month for a couple of tours, with the Indian summer warming up the weekends, but what with one thing and another Don has got October booked up with all kinds of other activities than hiking the Hammett trail. If you’re one of those people, driven by sudden desperation, who just have to go on the tour ASAP, you’ll spot an upcoming opportunity in the next blurb. RAIN OR SHINE Someone who took the tour many years ago is coming back to town and wants to see what’s changed in Sam Spade’s burg. Anyone who wants to join in is welcome to show up, tenspot at the ready, for a tour at noon on Sunday November 12th — same details as for the regular walks. The first rains of winter may be sweeping in by then, but the Hammett tour marches on — hope for a nice day or bring your hat and trenchcoat. IT'S RAINING DISCOVERIES IN CIMMERIA Don has been helping some other guys drop one new bombshell discovery after another about Texas author Robert E. Howard, heating up the centenary of his birth this year. This month he pulls off his third article in a row for The Cimmerian, the World Fantasy Award-nominated journal devoted to the creator of Conan, Kull and Solomon Kane. In August Don popped the cork on the news that the typescript for Howard’s first book, A Gent from Bear Creek, has been discovered. In September he detailed the finding of a significant haul of books from the library of Howard’s father, which cast some interesting shadows on the son’s writings. This month he is back with a long interview with Norris Chambers, filled with details no one has heard before — Norris, of course, knew the Howard family and recalls doing clean typescripts for Bob Howard, as the prolific author splashed the pulp field, cracking one new title after another. Hey, maybe after this centennial year is over, Don can take a breather for awhile. . . . SEPTEMBER 2006 NEWS EVERY SUNDAY IN SEPTEMBER Like it says on the Tour Page, there is a Hammett walk every Sunday this month — if you want to tag along, all you have to do is grab a tenspot and work your way down to the Main Library in San Francisco’s Civic Center for the noon start. Summer is over and the bleak noir rain is on its way. A perfect month for a little hardboiled stroll through those 1920s mean streets. LAST MONTH In the August issue of The Cimmerian, Don had one cool little article. For the past couple of years he’s been appearing often enough in the pages of this World Fantasy Award-nominated journal devoted to the Texas pulp fictioneer Robert E. Howard, but this time he thinks he really came up with something special (by dumb luck, of course, but that’s the best kind of break). The hardboiled angle is that he was put on the trail by Bill Arney, known to many of you as the inhabitant of Sam Spade’s apartment. From San Francisco to Cross Plains, Texas, from 2005 back to the misty past of the year 1937, Don pulled on his gumshoes for one of the most sensational discoveries of the year. LOST WORLDS While The Cimmerian has been burning down the house the last three years, with no less than twenty issues, thus far, to thoroughly entertain any fan of Robert E. Howard, our pals over in Clark Ashton Smith studies have been a trifle pokey. Launched about the same time as The Cimmerian, the CAS journal Lost Worlds is just now seeing its third issue appear. A piece Don actually wrote for the first issue of Lost Worlds finally sees daylight in this new issue — about the rediscovery of a “lost” story Smith cooked up for the science fiction pulps, with a nice aside on another of Don’s favorite writers of the Weird Tales school, Donald Wandrei. Just as anyone interested in Robert E. Howard and the pulp milieu needs to look into The Cimmerian, we can say that Lost Worlds ought to be of some interest as well — and you won’t go bankrupt buying new issues. AUGUST 2006 NEWS WAITING FOR SEPTEMBER No extra walks are being offered this month, but if you hang on till September there’ll be a tour every Sunday of the month, details on the Tour Page. HAMMETT TOUR EPHEMERA
Don guesses it had to happen someday, but
admits it snuck up on him — the book dealer
Roger Reus has put one of the many
brochures advertising the
tour on the block at
ABEbooks, $2 plus $3
postage. As a collector of the ephemera August
Derleth did up so brilliantly for Arkham House,
Don appreciates the lure of cool little catalogs
and did his best to make his own interesting. If
a mad stampede for the tour ephemera kicks in (as
it seems to have done for various editions of the
Hammett tour book), collectors can have some
brutal fun trying to land these extra items,
which most people toss out after looking them
over — that’s why collecting ephemera
of any kind is such a tough game. JULY 2006 NEWS TOUR ON SUNDAY, JULY 23rd Anyone who wants to join in is welcome to track down a tenspot and come along for the walk set for Sunday, July 23rd at noon — same info as for the May and September walks covered on the Tour Page. No reservations required, just show up and pound the mean streets for a few hours, it’s as simple as that. THE FAMOUS DON HERRONS Someone told me a couple of years ago that the term The Famous Don Herrons sounds like the name of a Motown group or something, and I suppose it does. But there are about five of us Don Herrons who eat up most of the hits on Google, and on occasion someone comes to me as honcho of donherron.com looking for one of the other Dons. Let’s try to clear up some of the confusion. . . . Years before I got on the internet — yes, even before the internet was invented by Al Gore or Others — I knew I wasn’t the first Don Herron on the planet. When I was just a teenager in Tennessee, the Canadian comedian Don Harron — sometimes incorrectly spelled as “Herron” — was achieving prominence as a regular on Hee Haw. This Don also comes in for some of the hits on ABEbooks if you’re trying to track down some of my titles, since he also writes books. (The easy way to tell us apart in the book department is that all of this Don’s literary work seems to have been published under his penname “Charlie Farquharson” — and I think this Don is the same Don who wrote The Sarim, but maybe not. Updates welcome.) To reach Don Harron, try his booking agent. The next Don Herron I became aware of surfaced just as I was starting up the Hammett tour in 1977 and he was getting press for the series of photos collectively titled Tub Shots. Both of us were in San Francisco at that moment in time, but around 1979 this Don — photographer, artist — headed off for New York, where he has made our name quite famous in many circles. If you pop on IMDb you’ll see that they have under one name/person that Don Herron listed for his appearance in the documentary “Superstar in a Housedress” and me for being a talking head in a documentary about the first Conan movie. If The Famous Don Herrons were in fact a musical act, we could use fiddle, pedal steel, mandolin, banjo and dobro player Don Herron in the group, I am sure. This Don has sat in with Dylan, Hank the Third, and many other musicians, and is a regular member of BR549. If you need to contact him, hit the BR549 website. The last of The Famous Don Herrons taking up a chunk of the web hits is the potter in Texas — though who knows how many more Don Herrons are working their way up the fame ladder even as I write. But if you’re Googling around and come across Don Herron Clayworks, that’s not me, not the guy from Hee Haw, not the photographer, not the musician. . . .
JUNE 2006 NEWS CROSS PLAINS REDUX Let’s keep this simple, as Don rushes to get out the door, heading back for the annual Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains, Texas — this one celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of the creator of Conan, Bran Mak Morn, and a host of other characters imagined in the wood pulp pages of Weird Tales, Action Stories and other magazines. If you’re wandering around that small Texas town, Don will be easy to find, so come over and say hello. TOUR OPEN TO ALL When Don returns to the foggy burg, anyone who wants to join in is welcome to hook up with the walk planned for Sunday June 18th at noon — same info as for the regular walks blurbed on the Tour Page. If interested, palm a ten-spot and come on down. OH, YEAH Roaming idly about the internet, Don found a gallery of photos shot during the big party on January 21 2006, celebrating Floyd Salas making it to 75 years on the mean streets — just like The Maltese Falcon! You can check out Don’s write-up on Floyd from Firsts right here , to give some context to all the pics of Floyd doing the Dirty Boogie. You can find Don (in deep disguise) among the photos, too. He took along his DVD set of Kingpin , the mini-series (sort of a Latino Sopranos ) for which Floyd did some writing, to have it signed — with a flourish, Floyd inked, “75 and still alive” — does kind of say it all.
MAY 2006 NEWS EVERY SUNDAY IN THE MONTH Yeah just like it says on the Tour Page, you will find a Hammett tour going each and every Sunday in May. If interested, pick a Sunday, grab a tenspot, and come on down. Only word of caution — if you’re thinking about the walk on Sunday the 7th, keep the backup meeting corner at McAllister and Larkin in mind, in case Cinco de Mayo activities spill over to that day and jam up the Civic Center. If the coast is clear, we’ll meet as usual near the revolving “L” sculpture at the n.w. corner of the main library, 100 Larkin. LATEST WRITE-UP A big article [PDF - 394kb] on Hammett by Peter Münder, with mention of Don and the tour, saw print on April 27, 2006 in S üddeutsche Zeitungout of Munich — according to the internet, S üddeutsche Zeitungis “Germany’s largest mainstream commercial paper.” Cool. HORRORS! The World Horror Convention is coming to San Francisco May 11-13, and Don has been drafted to be on a panel discussion about California fantasist Clark Ashton Smith on Saturday the 13th, from 4-5 p.m. At least one guy asked if Don would be around to sign some copies of Firsts magazine, so that will be the day to track him down. AAA Remember a couple of months ago we were mentioning interviews Don had done with the California Triple-A magazine and Southwest Airlines? In the May-June 2006 issue of Via: AAA Traveler’s Companion you will find on page 50 a blurb for the Hammett tour, following the long article on tracking down sites from the Da Vinci Code — the Hammett tour is the only literary excursion where you don’t have to vacate the state, too. Anyone traveling with Southwest in the next couple of months who spots something, let us know and we’ll put the info up here.
APRIL 2006 NEWS GROUPS BY APPOINTMENT While Don is doing some tours by appointment this month, he doesn’t have any walks where just anyone can show up and join in — but we’re almost into May, with a tour every Sunday in the month, so you don’t have long to wait. More frequently of late, Don has noticed people popping him emails to ask about doing a tour the very next weekend — like, two or three days from when they send the email. Anyone who wants to ask for an extra tour needs to give him enough lead time to post the info here — a month, at least. The earlier you tell him, the better your chances are for something working out. THE CIMMERIAN For anyone keeping up with it, Don had a new item appear in the March 2006 issue of The Cimmerian — an interview with Marie Baker Andrews, who actually knew Robert E. Howard. Put that together with his piece “Update: Collecting Robert E. Howard” in the March issue of Firsts: The Book Collector’s Magazine and you can see that Don is doing his bit during the centenary of Howard’s birth, and has several more articles on the way.Plus, he is the guy who talked Cimmerian editor Leo Grin into releasing the magazine each and every month during 2006 — never been done by any Howardian publication, and for fans of the Texas fantasist should not be missed. MARCH 2006 NEWS NOTHING EXTRA SO FAR No tours where anyone can show up have been set up for March, but if you hang in there, May isn’t that far off and there will be a tour every Sunday in that month. OUT THIS MONTH In the March issue of Firsts: The Book Collector’s Magazine you’ll find Don doing “Update: Collecting Robert E. Howard,” surveying the first editions that have seen print since he originally contributed “Collecting Robert E. Howard” to the July/August 2000 issue. Howard fans, take note. Also featured are William F. Nolan writing about H. P. Lovecraft and other pieces for book lovers everywhere. MEDIA Anyone who missed Don’s appearance last month on The Josh Kornbluth Show should be able to hop on his website and stream the episode – plus no doubt it will get some rerun action in the future on KQED. Coming down the line, Don has talked with journalists doing pieces for the California AAA and Southwest Airlines magazines, so watch out for those in the next two or three months. BLUES AND COMEDY Comic Mike Funt came out on the tour last month – a big fan of Hammett, he does lots of gigs in the area, for people on the lookout for a laugh. If you want some funky old blues instead, Don as always gives a big plug to his pal R. J. Mischo, who has a brand new website and a hot new CD, He Came to Play. . . R. J. is joining forces with Little Junior Crudup to help launch a new blues venue, The Uptown Night Club in 1928 Telegraph Avenue, Oaktown. They’ll be heating up the 9 p.m. show on Saturday March 25th.
FEBRUARY 2006 NEWS END OF THE MONTH Yeah, someone asked for a Hammett Tour on Sunday February 26th, noon start near the revolving “L” sculpture — usual details as on the Tour Page. Rain or shine, anyone who wants to join in is welcome to scour up a tenspot and a fedora and come on down. OUT OF THE PAST Well, from last month, at least. D. S. Black of the Bancroft Library just popped Don a copy of the Berkeleyan V.34, N.17 for January 12, 2006, and on page 5 of this paper covering doings at Cal he finds “Sleuthing out Bay Area mystery novels,” an article about Randal Brandt (with a nod to Don’s pioneering role in this hobby). From our website you can dive into one of Don’s essays about collecting San Francisco mysteries and get hooked up to Brandt’s online checklist — hit Murder in the City and have some fun. SHADOWING101 Late last year Don shot for a few hours with The Josh Kornbluth Show, doing his best impression of Dean Martin as he taught Josh the Four Rules of Shadowing and coached him in detective lingo (really, if you put a ciggie and a shot glass in Don’s hands, you couldn’t tell him and Dino apart). This episode also features Josh talking to P. I. Jack Palladino (Don kept mum and didn’t tell Josh that he worked for Palladino for a few months many years ago — these talk show mugs don’t need to know everything). The debut broadcast is on February 6th, with several repeats almost immediately: Mon, Feb 6, 2006: 7:30 pm Fri, Feb 10, 2006: 2:30 am, 2:30 pm, 10:30 pm Mon, Feb 13, 2006: 12:00 am Sat, Feb 11, 2006: 1:30 am, 5:30 am, 9:30 am, 1:30 pm, 5:30 pm, 9:30 pm Mon, Feb 13, 2006: 9:00 am, 1:00 pm, 5:00 pm Fri, Feb 10, 2006: 9:30 pm Sat, Feb 11, 2006: 2:30 pm Sun,
Feb 12, 2006: 12:00 pm, 7:30 pm JANUARY 2006 NEWS
RAIN OR SHINE As the 75th anniversary year for publication of The Maltese Falcon by Knopf wrapped up, a nice coincidence occurred— Sam Spade's office building got some restoration work done, covered by John King in a December 29th article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Don gets quoted a bit in this piece, but this is as good a moment as any to remind everyone that it was none other than Joe Gores who figured out that 111 Sutter would have been the offices for Spade & Archer in the novel. Gores doesn't get proper credit in the article for being the guy with the brain, but he's the one that tagged that address and thus made it part of local legend. NOIR FEST Eddie Muller brings his annual noir film fest back this month, with some rarely seen footage for Hammett fans, including Gary Cooper in City Streets on Saturday January 14th. Full details for this and other films available on the noir website.
DECEMBER 2005 NEWS HO HO HO(MICIDE)
With the usual
winter rains sweeping in, Don isn't offering any extra
walks this month, but as a little Xmasy present for
visitors to the website has gathered a couple of his
review columns under the heading "Death
Lit." One of the columns is even an
actual Christmas installment. Have a merry. NOVEMBER 2005 NEWS
THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING PLAQUE No, not that plaque — we covered that plaque in last month's news. Over twenty-three years ago — on July 10th 1982 — Don was on a plaque committee with William Kostura and John Law to install a plaque to the great San Francisco poet George Sterling on Russian Hill, and as part of the deal they got the little park located next to the Alice Marble Tennis Courts officially named George Sterling Glade. The dedication party was very cool, attended by legendary columnist Herb Caen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Fritz Leiber, and others, with speakers including Becky London, daughter of Jack — Sterling was Jack London's best pal — and with Donald Sidney-Fryer doing readings from Sterling's rich romantic oeuvre. Believe it or not, some people have noticed that the plaque has been missing for a few months now, and asked Don about it. Simple answer is that the park and the historic reservoir under it (dating from the Civil War era) have been undergoing restoration, and the plaque was pulled to prevent any damage. The Russian Hill Neighbors have been watching over the marker, and are ready to bring it back along with a new name for the park bordered by Lombard and Greenwich, Larkin and Hyde —George Sterling Park.
The rededication
event will be held on Saturday November 5th beginning at
11 a.m. on the Greenwich Street side of the park. Susan
Leal, General Manager of the San Francisco PUC, will be
hosting the informal ceremony. Light refreshments will be
served, various people will speak —and Donald Sidney-Fryer will
return to read from Sterling's verse, once more. If you
like San Francisco literary history in the making, show
up and say hello. SLIDE SHOW While Don is only doing tours by appointment this month, he will be making a public appearance on Tuesday November 8th, talking about Hammett and the tour for the San Francisco Historical Society, complete with a slide show! Here's the info from their newsletter:
The
talk will be presented Tuesday, November 8, 2005 7:30
p.m. at the UCSF-Laurel Heights Campus Auditorium, 3333
California Street at Walnut Street. Pre-program reception
at 7 p.m. Ample parking is available, or take public
transportation: #1 California, #4 Sutter, or the # 43
Masonic, or call 415 673-MUNI for more information. THREE YEARS ON THE MEAN STREETS!
Don realized that the third anniversary for Dennis McMillan's hard-boiled anthology Measures of Poison comes down this month. Debuted at the Bouchercon in Austin in 2002, Measures of Poison celebrated Dennis's 20th anniversary as a publisher, as he drew upon his bullpen of writers to create a collection of never-before-published fiction. Dennis really wanted stories set in the era of and written in the style of the hard-boiled pulps, so for his contribution Don tried to give him what he asked for —"Knives in the Dark," a neo-pulp yarn paying tribute to Hammett and Black Mask, set in San Francisco in the early 20s. A couple of people voting in the Thrilling Detective best-of-the-year poll seemed to like it. Dennis issued the book in two states —1000 copies of the trade hardback at $35 and 400 copies of the deluxe in slipcase at $300. Both states sold out all copies within four months. It's interesting to see how much loot the Poisons signed at the Bouchercon are going for these days —but bargain hunters can keep an eye out and sometimes catch a copy selling at the retail price.
OCTOBER 2005 NEWS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15th Some folk have asked for a walk on Saturday October 15th—same time, place, price as for the regular tours. Anyone who wants to attend is welcome to show up, with tenspot ready. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19th No, not a walk, but kind of close—Don will be speaking about Hammett and the tour at 7:30 p.m. in the Danville Village Theatre as the closer to the Danville and San Ramon Libraries CityRead program celebrating The Maltese Falcon hitting 75 years on the mean streets. It's open to the public, free, and the theatre seats 245—more people than would comfortably fit on the actual tour. Remember that swell plaque installed on 891 Post earlier this year? The dedication went off like clockwork on March 19th, but then toward the end of July the plaque mysteriously disappeared from the building! A few people noticed, and asked Don about it, and all he can say is, Relax, on September 14th the plaque went back up—or, a plaque went back up. What happened was this: the guy who worded the plaque noticed, a few days after the ceremonies, that the year of birth for Hammett was in error—1896 instead of the correct 1894. So, the guy dug into his own pockets, paid for a replacement, and now the info is letter-perfect. We kept this secret so as not to create mass hysteria, and as far as Don is concerned the first plaque could have been left up—a little mistake, so what?—worth its weight in gold, it would have given generations of reporters something to pick over as they write up Hammett and the Falcon for the next 75 years. OH, YEAH Last month we plugged several Friends of the Hammett Tour, so how about another this time? Donald Sidney-Fryer will be in the burg on Saturday October 22nd, signing copies of the third volume of his Songs and Sonnets Atlantean in Borderlands Books on Valencia. As the Tour Don reported in the essay he contributed to A Free Library in This City (published by Weldon Owen in 1996 to celebrate the opening of the new Main Library), the Poet Don was one of his major inspirations for putting on the hat and trenchcoat and starting up the walk. DSF will read from his new book, and generally amaze and amuse.
SEPTEMBER 2005 NEWS TOURS EVERY SUNDAY IN THE MONTH Just like it says on the Tour Page, grab a tenspot and come on down any Sunday in September—no reservations needed, you only have to show up and walk the walk. LAY OFF OR I'LL FOG YA If you live in the Bay Area or tune in to KFOG via the web, you may have caught the segment of Fog Files featuring Bill Arney, inhabitant of Sam Spade's apartment and all-around good guy. Great little interview, with Don and the Hammett tour cited for turning Bill onto his digs—but watch out, if you go on the tour you too might catch the Sam Spade virus and end up living the hard-boiled life. If you missed it, no problem, dive into the archives and listen there. LOST STORIES Vince Emery just released Lost Stories, collecting 21 Hammett tales which haven't been easily available for many years now. Vince is another guy who caught that Sam Spade bug—many years ago he used to look out of his windows in 580 McAllister, prime location used in Hammett's "The Whosis Kid," and wonder what that guy in the hat and trenchcoat was pointing to, and why. . . . Vince hauled himself out on the Hammett tour, one thing led to another, and now we have Lost Stories—with other Hammett-related titles in the works. BLUES HARP Hey, as long as it's plug Friends of the Hammett Tour month, let's not forget blues harmonica great R. J. Mischo. Don personally selected R. J. to do the music before his legendary (legendary?—well, it was a long time ago, anyway) Tentacle Session. You can catch R. J. performing all over the Bay Area, America, and Europe, and if you want a free sample come down to Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco from noon to 1:30 on Friday September 23rd, where R. J. is in on a West Coast Harp Jump with Lynwood Slim, Birdlegg and John Nemeth to kick off this year's San Francisco Blues Festival. REH IN FIRSTS Don turned in his update to the article "Collecting Robert E. Howard" for the October issue of Firsts , but some scrambling around at the magazine has set publication back until early next year. It's planned to appear in the March 2006 issue, alongside William F. Nolan writing on collecting H. P. Lovecraft—not bad company. And that means Don now can include all the Howard first editions that are sure to appear before the end of this year. He was worried that as soon as the October issue was out another four or five titles would jump into print, so at least he can catch those in his list.
AUGUST 2005 NEWS TOUR ON SUNDAY AUGUST 7th A couple of groups by appointment, insiders only, are set for this month, but anyone with a tenspot who wants to show up is more than welcome to take the walk offered on Sunday the 7th—same info as on the Tour Page. Just show up, ready to roll. A FULL MONTH OF TOURS For people who prefer to wait a few weeks, September will offer walks every Sunday in the month. Come on down and walk the walk during the 75th anniversary year of publication of The Maltese Falcon, if you're feeling hard-boiled. HOT NEWS Well, no. Finally, after a few frantic months, there is no particular extra, exciting news for August. Don has turned in an update to his "Collecting Robert E. Howard" article into Firsts , but that won't see print until October. Other items and talks announced as they appear.
JULY 2005 NEWS SATURDAY, LATE IN THE MONTH Some folk have asked for a tour on Saturday July 30th—open to anyone with a tenspot handy who wants to join in. Starts at noon, same info as for the regular walks. FIRST SUNDAY IN
AUGUST SYNDICATION We didn't know about it until after the fact, but the segment about the tour on Bay Area Backroads, as hosted by Vic Lee a couple of years ago, reran on June 10th and again on June 11th, when Don was off in Texas doing up Robert E. Howard Days. And apparently the article Scott Martelle wrote for the Los Angeles Times, April 17, 2005, is seeing some syndication—in Cross Plains both Rick Kelsey and Russell Andrews gave Don copies of the reprint that appeared in the travel section of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on June 5, 2005. Ethan Nahté, at work on a documentary about REH, topped them both, though, by handing over not only the travel section but the splash page for the "Early Sunday" section blurbing the article. Bogart as the definitive Private Eye appears prominently with both sections, as he should.
OP ERA When in Texas Don somehow always hears a fascinating tidbit about Prohibition, which apparently didn't slow up alcohol consumption in Cross Plains in the least. Last year Bob Baker was telling him that you could have gin delivered by the postman on his route (extremely convenient), and this trip Norris Chambers, another guy who knew Howard (Norris was hired by the author to do the clean typescript of A Gent from Bear Creek, which was shipped off as the basis for the 1937 British first edition), mentioned that at one point a pharmacy in Cross Plains tried to hire Howard's father to write "prescriptions." Howard's father was one of the town doctors, and if he'd taken the job he would have received two dollars for every prescription—for booze, of course—written. Doc Howard turned them down, but anyone can see that money was flowing freely around the bootleg business in those wild years, in Cross Plains as elsewhere.
JUNE 2005 NEWS FIRST SATURDAY IN JUNE On the heels of the full month of May seeing tours every Sunday, some people have pleaded for a tour on Saturday June 4th. It's on and is open to anyone who wants to join in—same meeting point, price, etc as for the regular Sunday walks. If interested, grab up a tenspot and come on down.
MAY 2005 NEWS TOURS EVERY SUNDAY IN MAY Yeah, that's the schedule, just like it says on the Tour Page. Just show up with gumshoes polished, snapbrim hat at a snappy angle, tenspot ready to pull from an inner pocket, and walk the walk that takes you back to the San Francisco of Hammett, Sam Spade, and the hard-boiled Continental Op. SATURDAY IN JUNE But if you simply cannot get your wardrobe ready for a Sunday stroll this month, or like Saturday better, some people have begged for a tour on Saturday June 4th—open to anyone who wants to join in, same meeting point, price, etc as for the regular Sunday walks. COLLECTING FRITZ LEIBER In the May issue of Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine anyone interested can find a new article by Don on collecting the first editions of fantasy and science fiction great Fritz Leiber. As usual, the layout with pictures of the book covers is swell, and this time Don's wording made it through editorial mostly unscathed—up until the last few paragraphs. Punch up that link if you want to compare the original with the published version. You'll find at least one detail that is correct in Don's version and incorrect in print, plus deleted lines about Wildside Press going Print on Demand. Now planned for the October issue of Firsts is an update to Don's article "Collecting Robert E. Howard," which appeared in the July/August 2000 issue. The new survey will cover the numerous Howard first editions that have seen print since 2000.
APRIL 2005 NEWS EXTRA TOURS Yeah, a few groups by appointment have been set for this month, but nothing (so far) anyone can just show up and attend. But it's almost May, with a tour every Sunday in the month, so if you're dying to go on the walk, hang in there and wait it out. THE FALCON FILES The original 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon (now titled Dangerous Female) and the definitive 1941 version starring Bogart will both be shown at The Balboa Theatre as part of an ambitious program called "The Reel San Francisco" which runs from April 16th through May 11th. Tons of footage, all sorts of movies -- if you are into the "San Francisco thing" they are worth watching just to see some piece of history captured on film. Go to every program if you can swing it, but Don especially plugs the revived and still little-known "Woman on the Run" if you haven't seen it before -- great shots of San Francisco! The one program Don REALLY wants to catch -- of course! -- falls opposite his first Hammett tour in May. If he wasn't committed to the tour on Sunday May 1st, he'd definitely be in the audience for Lon Chaney, Sr. in "Outside the Law" and other short films shot on location in The City, back in the 1920s, Hammett's decade. Don will be on stage to do short introductions to the 3:30 and 7:00 p.m. showings of Dangerous Female on Sunday April 24th -- come hear him give Dwight Frye a wild blurb and talk about how Jake Kranz felt cheated when they didn't hire him to play Sam Spade in the John Huston version in 1941. (Showings of the Huston/Bogart are set for 1:30, 5:10 and 8:55.) And while we're giving movies set in the area a plug, folk up in Sonoma County can catch various movies filmed about the area on Thursdays for a couple of months. Don did his time in Sonoma, up in Glen Ellen -- and of course that county has one of the best hard-boiled detective associations of all time, since Philip Marlowe was born in Santa Rosa. ANOTHER DEED DONE The plaque went up on 891 Post Street as scheduled on March 19th, without undue trouble. The day began as a Texas-style gullywasher inundated northern California, but by the time of the ceremony the skies had cleared and all people had to do was climb up four flights of stairs to check out Sam Spade's apartment. Hammett fan Mike Humbert caught the action on camera -- hop over to his site to see what went down. THE LA TIMES also sent one of their ace
reporters up to cover the action, and that article
appeared in the paper on Sunday April 17th. MARCH 2005 NEWS SHORT TOURS, TARGET: MALTESE FALCON To celebrate the official historical plaquing of Sam Spade's residence in891 Post on Saturday March 19th, Don is offering special cut-down tours concentrating just on The Maltese Falcon — 75 years old and holding in there — on both the day before and the day after: Friday March 18, 10am and 1 pm Sunday March 20, 10am and 1pm These walks will take an hour and a half up to two hours, will cost $5 (half the tour for half the moola), and — pay attention to this detail — will meet in front of 870 Market, the James Flood Building, near the cable car turntable and Powell Street BART station. If interested, be there, and look for the most knowledgeable guy on hard-boiled stuff, standing around in hat and trenchcoat. PLUS A REGULAR LONG TOUR For those of you who may prefer one of the full four hour walks, covering the Falcon plus the Continental Op, show up at the n.w. corner of the Main Library on Sunday March 27th at noon — same price and info as on the Tour Page. FINALLY, A PLAQUE ON A HAMMETT BUILDING! And a cool plaque it is — the tour group on February 28th got to pass it around and take lots of photos, but when you see it on March 19th it will be attached like a barnacle to the front of 891 Post, where Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon and where Sam Spade's apartment is located in that novel (a double whammy if ever there was one!). Hammett's daughter Jo Marshall, biographer Richard Layman, and other dignitaries will be present for the affair — plus you'll get short speeches, milling about on the sidewalk, and tours of the apartment. Beginning at 10 a.m. we'll begin taking small groups up to show off all the work Bill Arney, inhabitant of the digs and a cornerstone figure in The Hammett Cult in San Francisco, has put into restoring the place to a vintage 1928 look. Find Don outside the door and get in line, it's as simple as that. The dedication ceremony begins at 11 a.m. and ought to last about half an hour. If you like Hammett, San Francisco, literary history — the usual — be there. MORE HAMMETT Throughout the month of March you can view a display titled "The Maltese Falcon: An American Classic at 75" on the third floor of the Main Library in 100 Larkin Street, in San Francisco's Civic Center. Photos, memorabilia, even a typewriter — though not the typewriter the novel was written on in 891 Post, that is one of those Holy Grail items collectors avidly seek (hey, someone found Robert E. Howard's typewriter, and he died in 1936, so it's not an impossible quest). The library also is showing Hammett-connected films every Thursday in March at noon in the Koret Auditorium — why Thursday and why noon, who can say? Info at www.sfpl.org or phone (415) 557-4277. BUT THEN Once again the Hammett segment set for CBS Sunday Morning News, announced last month, got bumped — Arthur Miller kicked off that weekend and scooped the literary angle. Someday it might get scheduled once more and actually aired — if so, we'll try to give you a head's up. The Lost Stories collection of rare Hammett tales to be published by Vince Emery has been set back from the announced April release date to September — we won't bore you with the details, but if you've been dying to get it, suck it in and wait. An article on Hammett and/or the tour supposedly appeared in the Stockton Record on March 3rd (we haven't seen it), and another is set for the San Francisco Observer at some point soon. No doubt various media will cover the plaque ceremony, so gird yourself for a barrage.
FEBRUARY 2005 NEWS A FEBRUARY TOUR The science fiction fans attending Corflu, one of the myriad little conventions, have asked for a Hammett tour—and on a MONDAY! Why not? Anyone who is free that day and wants to join them, grab a tenspot and show up on Monday February 28th at 10am—same meeting place as for the regular walk. SHORT TOURS IN MARCH Okay, looks as if 891 Post, the building where Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon (and where Sam Spade lives in the novel), will be plaqued on Saturday March 19th—full details next month—in connection with a library convention coming into the berg. To give the librarians something else to do (plus anyone else who wants to show up), Don is offering special cut-down tours concentrating just on The Maltese Falcon: Friday March 18, 10am and 1 pm Sunday March 20, 10am and 1pm These walks will take an hour and a half up to two hours, will cost $5 (half the tour for half the moola), and will meet in front of 870 Market, the James Flood Building, near the cable car turntable and Powell Street BART station. If interested, be there, and look for the guy in hat and trenchcoat. (No tours that Saturday—Don is going to be a Busy Guy that day. And if any other tours pop up they will appear here on the News Page.) HAMMETT MANIA We still haven't gotten a link for the national plans for celebrating the Falcon hitting 75 years on the mean streets, so you'll need to keep an eye peeled. On January 17 Turner Classic Movies eased under our radar and broadcast twelve hours of Hammett flicks, but the first version of The Maltese Falcon starring Ricardo Cortez and the great Dwight Frye aired at 5:30am (man, that's inhuman!). Vintage Books is releasing several Hammett titles in hot new neo-pulp covers, they'll be available everywhere, and local boy Vince Emery has a volume called Lost Stories coming up in April. In February, watch out for a segment on Hammett set for the CBS Sunday Morning News on Feb 13. Don shot with this crew awhile back and may (or may not) make the final cut. San Francisco Chronicle Magazine recently ran a piece on the Tour that has some fun pictures of Don in it. On Monday Feb 14—the literal 75th anniversary day on which the Falcon first saw print from Knopf—NPR Morning Edition also is planning a segment about San Francisco's most famous mystery writer. If you live in LA or thereabouts, on Saturday Feb 19 the mighty Egyptian Theatre is showing both the 1931 Ricardo Cortez and the 1941 Bogart versions of The Maltese Falcon—but we hear that Warner Brothers could not provide them with the 1936 version starring Bette Davis. Honest, How on Earth could ANYONE misplace a BETTE DAVIS MOVIE?! Get a grip down there. . . . THAT DARN DENNIS The other week Dennis McMillan was prowling around town, promoting his latest release, Red Jungle by Kent Harrington. In the course of kicking around with him, hitting some bookstores, Don discovered (and it was not a surprise) that Dennis still has not updated his website for backlist books, such as Don's own Willeford. Dennis swears he'll do it, but just in case he doesn't (and as we did a few months ago) let's have another: SALE Anyone who wants a copy of Willeford—about the brilliant crime writer Charles Willeford, of course—can order directly from Don Herron PO Box 8755 Emeryville CA 94662-8755 for only $28 postpaid in the months of February and March. Regular price is $30, postage usually runs $4, so it's a better deal than you'll get from Dennis, even if he does update his website any year now.
JANUARY 2005 NEWS WHOA! Another year, already! Looks as if this month is going to be rained-in, solid, so it's doubtful any tours will pop up suddenly. But check back in if you must do the walk in typhoon conditions—you never know. . . . 75th ANNIVERSARY Plans surrounding the 75th anniversary of publication of The Maltese Falcon by Knopf in 1930 seem to be jelling—looks as if Saturday March 19th is going to be The Big Day, so mark your calendars. More info as it gets nailed down. TENTATIVE Let's make that VERY tentative. . . . But it looks as if the segment about Hammett shot for theCBS Sunday Morning News may air in the early a.m. on Sunday February 13th. It may get bounced for some hotter news, who knows? If you're up and want to check for it, consider this due notice.
DECEMBER 2004 NEWS EXTRA TOUR Some folk Don met in Cross Plains, Texas, have asked for a tour during the rainiest season and he can't say "no." Open to anyone who wants to join, just show up with a ten-spot on Sunday December 19th — same meeting info as on the tour page. SINCE IT'S THE SEASON how about a hard-boiled present to divert a few hours of your time? Click right here to dive into a little caper about mysteries — lots of mysteries — that take place in San Francisco. 20 YEARS DOWN! Don's first book on Robert E. Howard, The Dark Barbarian, has made it to 20 years — without ever going out-of-print. Not bad at all for a book of literary criticism, if we do say so ourselves. The December issue of The Cimmerian, the premiere journal devoted to Howard studies, celebrates this achievement with new appraisals by Darrell Schweitzer and Charles Hoffman, a battery of reviews received when The Dark Barbarian first saw publication, plus a transcript of the talk Don gave when he was the guest speaker for the Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains, Texas in 2003. And don't miss the letters column, where Don gets into a new rumble with Darrell (current editor of Weird Tales) over one of their favorite fights — how Weird Tales treated H. P. Lovecraft back in the day. Don supports Lovecraft all the way, of course.
NOVEMBER 2004 NEWS
IT'S RAINY SEASON AGAIN the thought came to Don that he has a cache of
books that might be of interest to fans and collectors of Fritz
Leiber. In 1990 under his Dawn Heron Press imprint, Don published a
collection of poetry by Margo Skinner, the second Mrs. Fritz Leiber,
entitled As Green as Emeraude. A nice little book with an
introduction by Fritz, an afterword by Donald Sidney-Fryer, limited
to 500 numbered copies signed by Margo, Fritz and Donald
Sidney-Fryer —
with DSF the only one of these
three still standing. Leiber died on September 5,
1992 — now a dozen years ago!
OCTOBER 2004 NEWS EXTRA HAMMETT TOUR For people who missed the set of tours offered in September, show up on Sunday October 17th with a ten-spot at the ready —rain or shine, some people begged for a tour that day and it's open to anyone interested. Same place, time as on the Tour Page. IF YOU'RE QUICK On Thursday September 30th BBC Radio 4 broadcast "Trailing Dashiell Hammett," in which Don pulls a cameo (it was fun during the tour on May 30th as BBC ace James Crawford had that mic always at the ready, and this is the result). BBC carries a repeat service on their website for about a week, so if you're curious, hop on the web fast and punch it up. You need the free Real Player to listen. FRITZ LEIBER TOUR Okay, the bad news is that Don goofed off for months and blew the deadline for his article on collecting Fritz Leiber for the October issue of Firsts: The Book Collectors Magazine (but no need for panic — Firsts come out all the time and they'll reschedule the essay as soon as it's finished). The good news is that he's decided to cave in to demand and offer another Leiber tour, the first one in several years. (Hint: if you've ever wanted to do this one, show up now!) The Leiber tour, concentrating on his novel of supernatural horror Our Lady of Darkness, will be held, appropriately, on Halloween —Sunday October 31st, starting at 2 pm (watch out for Daylight Savings Time changing back). Meet in front of Kayo Books in 814 Post Street between Leavenworth and Hyde —on-street parking is free on Sunday, but scarce, so you'll probably have to hike in. If you get there early, browsing the shelves in Kayo is always a good way to kill some time. Unlike the Hammett tour, which is steady as a clock, the Leiber tour may vary wildly for the amount of time it takes, but figure on at least 4 and perhaps up to 5 hours. In addition to the usual $10 charge, you will need Muni fare of $1.25 exact change (or a Muni pass), because the tour jumps from the downtown area over toward the mysterious looming mass of Corona Heights, where the ashes of the sorcerer Thibaut de Castries were buried one night by a party which included both Dashiell Hammett and Clark Ashton Smith (heh heh. . .). Corona Heights is handily close to Castro and Market, so if you want to head over to the wildest Halloween party scene in San Francisco after the walk, there you go. Is this good planning, or what? Don does want to give one Warning —not a cool, supernatural horror style warning, but a Corona Heights is steeper than hell warning —to get to the top (and the tour does go to the top, up to the Bishop's Seat), takes some effort. If you're terribly out-of-shape, climbing that hill is brutal.
SEPTEMBER 2004 NEWS FULL MONTH OF HAMMETT TOURS Okay, anyone interested has a full month of tours available, Sundays at noon, info on the Tour Page. Since next year is the gala 75th anniversary of the first edition of The Maltese Falcon, you might want to get a jump on the crowd, be able to say, "Oh, that book. I already read that book. Took the tour and everything." 75th ANNIVERSARY And there seems to be a ton of stuff being cooked up in connection with the Falcon hitting 75 years, film festival, wall-to-wall talks and displays. When the info gets pinned down, it'll appear here. A LITTLE MORE REH Don hasn't been writing much lately, but you'll find a two-pager he cooked up in The Cimmerian Volume 1 Number 3 for August 2004. This issue covers in full Robert E. Howard Days where Don debuted his new book, The Barbaric Triumph, this past June. En route to Cross Plains Don got to stop in on Bob Baker, who was eleven years old and present on the day Robert E. Howard committed suicide. Baker's remarks on Howard get quoted in Don's new article, "He Was Deadly," but one of the comments not included in the article can appear here for the first time for fans of the Continental Op, the Twenties, Prohibition era. . . . Bob said in those days some people got their liquor drinking in by chugging bottles of vanilla extract, and best of all said that if you needed hooch, all you had to do in Cross Plains was to put in a request at the post office — the postman would drop off bottles of gin while on his route! Man, that's service! AUGUST 2004 NEWS EXTRA TOURS While a couple of groups by appointment have been scheduled, no extra tours where just anyone can show up are on the boards for August as yet —check back if you want, or just wait till September, when a Hammett Tour happens every Sunday in the month. EVENING MAGAZINE Don shot a few quick bits for Evening Magazine, one of the Bay Area's most popular television news shows, set to air at 7 p.m. on Tuesday August 3rd on KPIX-TV CBS channel 5 —if you live in the region, check it out (and after a couple of days anyone will be able to access the show via their online Video Archives). You'll see Don join hosts Mike Rowe and Malou Nubla for glances at Hammett sites and a drink in John's Grill (mystery fans may be interested to know that Mike is a HUGE fan of the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald). Fast and fun.
JULY 2004 NEWS EXTRA WALKS Nothing scheduled so far, although a couple of groups are angling for tours by appointment. Check back, you never know when a walk will pop up that anyone can attend.
JUNE 2004 NEWS A SATURDAY TOUR Some folk are coming into the berg and asking for a tour on Saturday June 26th, and anyone is welcome to attend. Same price, meeting point, and so on as for the regular Sunday walk. If interested, palm a ten-spot and come on down. 125 YEARS AND COUNTING In June the San Francisco Public Library is hosting a ton of events to celebrate hitting 125 years on the mean streets, and because he's easy, they've talked Don into playing Dashiell Hammett (he's still got over a week to drop 70 lbs and get that authentic Thin Man look going. . .). So, on Tuesday June 8th, 6:30-7:30pm, the interested can attend a panel titled "Live and in Person" where David Kipen, book editor of the Chronicle, interviews Hammett, Mark Twain, Jack London, and Allen Ginsberg in the Koret Auditorium, Lower Level in the Main Library, 100 Larkin Street (at Grove). Near Civic Center BART. Free—and no doubt some fun.
BACK IN THE BERG On Saturday June 19th, from 4:00-6:00pm, Don is doing another bit in honor of the San Francisco Library reaching 125 years, with a talk on "Literary San Francisco, Especially the Haight" in the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street (near Cole). Don's first address in the City was mere blocks away, in 646 Clayton Street—plus he's got a few more interesting literary connections that didn't appear in his The Literary World of San Francisco to toss out. Plus people want to know if and where Philip K. Dick lived in the Haight—if you know, give a yell. Free to all, thanks to the great people of the San Francisco library system. And Don's debut of his sequel to The Dark Barbarian, The Barbaric Triumph, was a big hit. Anyone who wants either a regular hardback or trade paperback can get them from various places on the web, but if you're one of those people who like limitation states, listen up: Don left an assortment of hardbacks and paperbacks of The Barbaric Triumph—all signed by Don and two other essayists and dated on the anniversary of Howard's death, June 11, 2004—in the Howard Museum gift shop. If you are a collector who goes for that sort of association item, these books can be ordered directly from Cross Plains for as long as they last. Hardcover is $35 plus $5 p&h Paperback is $20 plus $3 p&h Checks or money orders payable to Project Pride, the civic group that maintains the house (and half the profits from any of these sales goes to that fund): Project Pride PO Box 534 Cross Plains, Texas 76443 They also have misc other items, such as signed paperback copies of The Dark Barbarian ($20) and three signed copies of Graveyard Rats and Others ($35), which Don did the intro for. In addition, 2004 REH Days Guest of Honor Robert Weinberg left several signed paperback copies of his The Weird Tales Story ($25), along with both paper and hardback copies of his anthology Far Below and Other Horrors ($30 for the hardcover, $16 for the trade paper). Toss in $5 p&h for any hardcover states and $3 p&h for the paperbacks. As if that isn't enough, Project Pride also has several copies left of Leo Grin's hot new Robert E. Howard journal, The Cimmerian, in both a deluxe state ($15 each) and a limited state ($10 each). Add an extra $2 per book for p&h. Check out www.thecimmerian.com for details and contents, but if you like REH, try not to miss out. Better hop to it: the deluxe states are almost sold out, and after they all go Project Pride will have the only remaining copies.
MAY 2004 NEWS A SOLID MONTH OF TOURS If you've been waiting year after year to finally do the Hammett Tour, here's your big chance—walks every Sunday in May at noon, info as on the Tour Page. COMING UP ON CHANNEL 5 Don just shot a segment of the KPIX-TV show Urban Archaeology, talking about the history of John's Grill and how Hammett's most famous private eye stops into 63 Ellis Street and orders the chops, baked potato and sliced tomatoes. Plus he stood as a shadowy silhouette against the windows (Don's an expert at this). Who knows, maybe he'll end up as a silhouette on the cutting room floor, but whatever comes out of the session is slotted to air at 7:30am on Saturday May 15th.
APRIL 2004 NEWS A SATURDAY TOUR Okay, people asked for a tour for Saturday April 3rd—same meeting place, price, etc. as the regular tour, only this time it's not on Sunday. Anyone who wants to show up is welcome, no reservations taken. Be there with a ten-spot and a few hours to kill. THE NEW HITCHCOCK Whoa. The new issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine with Don's latest review column snuck up on us. Dated June 2004, looks like it is on the newsstands in April. This is the one where Don covers about a dozen releases, present and past, starting with various titles from university presses, then wrapping up with reviews of pulp collections such as Jo Gar's Casebook and a few titles by the long-lived Hugh B. Cave. MARCH 2004 NEWS Extra Walk Once more, people have asked for a Hammett tour out of the oh-so-limited season, and it's on for Sunday March 21st—same time, place, price as the regular walks. Anyone who wishes to attend, be at the n.w. corner of the library by noon, clutching a ten spot. $28 SALE While the Books page has been directing orders for the book Willeford to the Dennis McMillan website, don't think that Don is unaware that Dennis has REALLY out of date ordering info hitched to that book and the rest of his backlist—a place he hasn't lived in YEARS, ditto the phone number. If you jump through enough hoops, you can track him down and maybe order a copy. Who knows? To give that old boy a nudge, from now until the end of May, you can order Willeford straight from Don, signed if you wish, for $28 a copy postpaid. Cover priced $30, with most dealers adding postage and handling, $28 seems like a fairly good deal for patrons of this site. You can find a few copies a bit cheaper if you scour the web, books people have spilled coffee on or bent the overlarge flaps. But for anyone wanting new, at a few dollars off: March 1st-May 31st 2004: copies of Willeford for $28 each, cheques to Don Herron P.O. Box 8755 Emeryville CA 94662-8755
FEBRUARY 2004 NEWS Steady as She Goes Don has another review column in the issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine for April 2004, but you'll find it on the newsstands this month. This column covers short story collections, but on February 2nd Don turned in his next column, reviewing both mystery releases from university presses and a few collections from the detective pulps (he especially recommends Donald Wandrei's Frost as some of the hottest pulp writing ever). For anyone keeping track, previous columns appeared in the issues dated Feb 2003, March 2003, and Sept 2003. Don is enjoying his stint at AHMM, in large part because Willeford used to work for the magazine when it was based in Florida in the 1960s. Oh, Yeah If you like surfing around on the web, go over to Publishers Weekly and type "Don Herron" into their search engine. Don has been reviewing for PW since Peter Cannon took over as genre editor in 2000. None of the reviews carry a byline, but interviews with the authors do. So far, you can find Don talking with James Crumley, James Sallis, Dennis McMillan, Eddie Muller, and the phenomenal Paul Doherty. Usually the person doing the interview also does the review, but not always—in the case of the Question & Answer with Dennis McMillan, Don was brought in for the interview, but someone else did the review of Measures of Poison (since Don wrote a story for that book—and he still cannot believe that Dennis (!) hasn't put up on his website that Measures of Poison sold out all copies, regular and deluxe, in only four months—that's fast!). For October Someone emailed to ask if Don is ever going to do another Fritz Leiber Tour, and he realized this October would be a good time for one, since he's now working on an article about collecting Leiber's first editions for the October issue of Firsts. Why not? A Fritz Tribute month, coming up. More information as we close in on the date.
JANUARY 2004 NEWS IT'S RAINING COMMAS IN FRISCO In honor of Floyd Salas's 73rd birthday this month, we're putting up Don's article "Collecting Floyd Salas," which appeared in the December 2003 issue of Firsts, the Book Collectors Magazineunder the title "Floyd Salas: From the Mean Streets." Don likes his version better than the edited version that appeared in Firsts (well, yeah, he always does), which left out some of the nicest little moments while getting the text to fit into a certain number of pages around the cool pictures of all Floyd's first edition covers. The online version is much more personal, and fun. Don had to put up the original version if only because of the change to his sentence "Roger Leon indeed is paranoid, Floyd notes, but he’s paranoid for a reason." Note: only two commas. The magazine version reads, "His alter ego, Roger Leon, is, indeed, paranoid, Floyd notes, but he’s paranoid for a reason." SIX COMMAS! Slow that wagon down.
DECEMBER 2003 NEWS STREET FIGHTER If you pick up the
December issue of Firsts,
the Book Collectors Magazine, you'll find a new
article by Don, "Collecting Floyd Salas." Floyd is one of those Poets of the
Mean Streets kind of writers, author of the great books
Tattoo the Wicked Cross and
Buffalo Nickel. A local Bay Area writer, Floyd
grew up in Oakland and before he became a writer estimates he had some 200
street fights, almost all of which he says he won by knockouts. Floyd's had a
few more since becoming a writer, with Don's favorite the one that took place
when he was sixty-six. PUZZLING Okay, here's
something different: the issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery
Magazine now on the stands (dated Jan/Feb 2004)
reveals that the solution to the acrostic puzzle from the December issue (which
was on the stands in Nov —
just figuring out the newsstand schedule is enough of a challenge!) is a quote
from Don —from his very
first review column for Hitchcock, at that. The full quote ran: "From the
moment when Edgar Allan Poe imagined murder victims found inside that
mysteriously locked room in the Rue Morgue, Paris, the mean streets of cities
have served as a perfect arena for crime writers. Sure, most of us know you
could get killed almost anytime, even in the most innocent of settings, but it
is hard to shake the feeling that a city, any city, is a particularly dangerous
place indeed." Don confesses he wouldn't have known if they hadn't told
everybody about it. |
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