George Sterling Poet and playwright George Sterling (1869-1926) wrote Babes in the Wood: The lost Stone-Age sequel to Jack London's Before Adam. He was one of the most highly-acclaimed American poets of the first quarter of the twentieth century. Sterling’s often-dazzling poems were printed in almost every American literary magazine and in scores of major newspapers across the nation. Sterling also wrote short stories. Babes in the Wood is his only longer work of fiction.
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Mike Weiss Edgar Award-winner Mike Weiss is the author of Double Play: The Hidden Passions Behind the Double Assassination of George Moscone and Harvey Milk. He covered the trial of Dan White and the White Night riots for Time magazine, Rolling Stone, and the Los Angeles Times. Weiss is also the author of the nonfiction books Living Together and A Very Good Year: The Journey of a California Wine from Vine to Table, as well as the acclaimed Ben Henry series of mystery novels. Mr. Weiss was raised in New York City, educated at Knox College and Johns Hopkins University, and worked for many years as a reporter in San Francisco.
Harvey Milk Harvey Milk (1930-1978), the author of The Harvey Milk Interviews: In His Own Words was named "one of the 100 most important people of the Twentieth Century" by Time magazine. When Milk was elected a supervisor of the City and County of San Francisco, he became the first openly gay person elected to office in California. In spite of death threats, he supported a wide range of human rights, environmental, labor, and free speech issues across North America. He was assassinated in 1978.
Dashiell Hammett Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961), the author of Lost Stories, was one of the world's most popular and influential writers. Famous as the best-selling creator of Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man, Hammett was also a Pinkerton's detective, an advertising man, a soldier in the U.S. Army during both World Wars, an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, a political activist, and a short story writer. In addition to his tales in Lost Stories, the book Discovering The Maltese Falcon and Sam Spade includes "Seven Pages," a Hammett story unavailable anywhere else.
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Don Herron Don Herron has led the Dashiell Hammett Tour in San Francisco since 1977, becoming a living institution in the City by the Bay. He is the author of The Literary World of San Francisco, as well as Willeford, a biography of crime writer Charles Willeford, and The Dark Barbarian, on writer Robert E. Howard. Herron has appeared frequently in the media, including PBS and BBC television. He figures he reached the peak of his fame when he turned up on the television quiz show Jeopardy!. Category: American Cities. "The city in which Don Herron leads the Dashiell Hammett Tour." The button is hit. "What is San Francisco?" Of course.
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Jo Hammett Jo Hammett was nominated for an Edgar Award for her biography Dashiell Hammett: A Daughter Remembers. She was editorial advisor for Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett, as well as the author of that book's introduction, "A Reasonable Amount of Trouble." She also wrote the preface, "Back Where I Might Have Been," for The Dashiell Hammett Tour.
Joe Gores Joe Gores worked for twelve years as a detective in San Francisco. As a writer of novels, short stories, and screenplays, he has won three Edgar Awards. He has written scripts for Kojak, Columbo, Magnum P.I., Remington Steele, and other television series. He is a past president of the Mystery Writers of America. Gores' popular novels and stories about the detective firm Daniel Kearney Associates are based on his own experiences as a San Francisco private eye. Francis Ford Coppola produced a movie based on Gores' novel Hammett. Gores wrote the introduction to Lost Stories, and the novel Spade & Archer, the authorized prequel to The Maltese Falcon.
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Richard Layman Richard Layman, the editor of Discovering The Maltese Falcon and Sam Spade, has written six books on Dashiell Hammett, including Literary Masterpieces: The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett: A Descriptive Bibliography, and Shadow Man: The Life of Dashiell Hammett, and had been nominated for another Edgar Award for Discovering The Maltese Falcon and Sam Spade. He was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America for editing Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett, 1921-1960. He is vice president of Bruccoli Clark Layman Inc., which produces reference works in literary and social history, including the Dictionary of Literary Biography. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina.
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George J. "Rhino" Thompson A professor's recommendation that he write his doctoral dissertation on Dashiell Hammett led George J. "Rhino" Thompson, the author of Hammett's Moral Vision, to change careers from university English teacher to police officer. He later became the best-selling author of Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion and the founder and president of the Verbal Judo Institute. "Rhino" has been featured on network news on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox, and on the TV programs 48 Hours, Inside Edition, and In the Line of Duty. He lives in upstate New York. His website is www.verbaljudo.com.
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William F. Nolan Two-time Edgar Award winner William F. Nolan wrote the first book published about Dashiell Hammett (Dashiell Hammett: A Casebook) and the introduction to Hammett's Moral Vision. Nolan has written or edited more than 70 other books, including nonfiction (The Black Mask Boys; Max Brand, Western Giant; John Huston: King Rebel; McQueen; The Ray Bradbury Companion; Hammett: A Life at the Edge), mystery fiction (The Black Mask Murders, The Marble Orchard, Sharks Never Sleep, Down the Long Night), horror fiction (Things Beyond Midnight, Helltracks), and science fiction, including the Sam Space series and the million-seller Logan's Run. His book on Grand Pre champion Phil Hill was optioned for films by Mel Gibson. Nolan has also written screenplays for TV shows and movies. In addition to writing, Nolan has raced sports cars, acted in movies and television, and worked as an illustrator and cartoonist. He lives in Bend, Oregon.
Charles Willeford Charles Willeford (1919-1988) is best known for his bestselling hardboiled novels about Miami police detective Hoke Moseley. Willeford served as a soldier in the Army and Army Air Corps for twenty years. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and earned the Bronze Star and the Silver Star for bravery, the Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster, and the Cross of Luxembourg. He was associate editor of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, mystery critic for the Miami Herald, and taught at Miami-Dade Junior College and the University of Miami. Three of Willeford's sixteen novels have been made into movies. A Willeford article about The Dashiell Hammett Tour serves as the introduction to that book.
Vince Emery In addition to editing Lost Stories and The Harvey Milk Interviews: In His Own Words, author, editor, and publisher Vince Emery contributed research and articles to several books about Dashiell Hammett, including "Hammettisms in The Maltese Falcon," which appears in Discovering The Maltese Falcon and Sam Spade, and "If You Haven't Read Thompson," which appears as the preface to Hammett's Moral Vision. He also wrote the bestseller How to Grow Your Business on the Internet. Emery lives near San Francisco.
