A short biography
The Continental Op
Blood Money
Red Harvest
The Dain Curse
The Maltese Falcon:
The novel
The movie
The 75th anniversary
The Glass Key
The Thin Man
Woman in the Dark
The short story collections
The novels in one
volume
Books about Hammett
Chronology of Hammett's fiction
Hammett's army days
"Dashiell Hammett Place"
Hammett's Post Street
apartment:
A photo tour (2003)
Declared
landmark (2005)
The Flood Building
The Hammett Suite
at Hotel Union Square
Links to other Hammett sites
Contact Mike
mikehumbert.com homepage
This site is dedicated to all the people like Don Herron, Bill Arney, Richard Layman, William F. Nolan, Josephine Hammett Marshall, Julie M. Rivett, Steven Marcus, Joe Gores and others who have kept 1920s San Francisco in the here and now.
Special thanks to Vince Emery for his many helpful contributions to this website.
Entire website copyright 2003, 2004 & 2005 by Mike Humbert.
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PERRY MASON DAYS 2006
Five long-dead mystery writers were onhand at the Oroville (California) branch of the Butte County Library to discuss their lives and their work, as well as field questions from the audience:
Anna Katherine Green, mother of the mystery novel, portrayed by Valerie Zwirn (back row, left).
Dashiell Hammett, one of the founding fathers of the hard-boiled detective novel, as impersonated by Mike Humbert (back row, middle).
Agatha Christie, grand dame of the victorian mystery, embodied by Judith Davies (back row, right).
Louisa May Alcott, best known as the author of Little Women, although she also wrote several mysteries. Ms. Alcott was played by Alberta Tracy (front row, left).
Mildred Wirt Benson, first ghostwriter of the Nancy Drew mystery series, brought to life by Merrily Stover (front row, right).
The event was organized by Pat Koskinen.
Why Perry Mason Days? To honor the memory of local boy Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of the famous shyster. Gardner, who was expelled from Oroville High School for “hooliganism,” eventually wrote over eighty Perry Mason novels. In addition, he created several other successful mystery series (Ed Jenkins, D.A. Doug Selby, Donald Lam & Bertha Cool, Terry Clane, etc.) and also produced a great deal of non-fiction. He died in 1970.