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Literary historian and biographer Don Herron



author 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, a neighborhood-by-neighborhood guide to places where writers have lived in the city, covering everyone from Jack London to Jack Kerouac, as well as Willeford, a biography of crime writer Charles Willeford. Best-selling author John Jakes called Herron's book The Dark Barbarian, on writer Robert E. Howard, "Serious, scholarly, yet entertaining throughout - a superior job."

Herron's Hammett tour has been covered regularly by the media, and he has appeared frequently on radio and television in America, Great Britain, Japan, and Germany, including NPR and BBC radio, and PBS and BBC television.

Herron figures he reached the peak of his fame when his tour turned up on the TV 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.


Books edited or written by Don Herron

  • The Dashiell Hammett Tour: Thirtieth Anniversary Guidebook (2009)
  • "Yours for Faster Hippos," Thirty Years of "Conan vs. Conantics" (2007)
  • (Editor) The Barbaric Triumph: A Critical Anthology on the Writings of Robert E. Howard (2004)
  • Willeford (1997)
  • (Editor, uncredited) Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick, 1938-1971 (1997)
  • (Editor) Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick, 1972-1973 (1994)
  • (Editor) Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick, 1977-1979 (1993)
  • (Editor) Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick, 1975-1976 (1993)
  • (Editor, uncredited) Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick, 1974 (1991)
  • The Dashiell Hammett Tour, third edition (1991)
  • The Literary World of San Francisco and Its Environs: A Guidebook, second edition (1990)
  • (Editor with Donald Sidney-Fryer) The Devil's Notebook: Collected Epigrams and Pensées of Clark Ashton Smith (1990)
  • (Editor, uncredited) Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King (1989)
  • (Editor) Reign of Fear: Fiction and Film of Stephen King (1988)
  • The Literary World of San Francisco and Its Environs: A Guidebook (1985)
  • (Editor) The Dark Barbarian: The Writings of Robert E. Howard (1984)
  • The Dashiell Hammett Tour, second edition (1982)
  • The Dashiell Hammett Tour (1979)
  • Echoes from the Vaults of Yoh-Vombis: A Compendium of the Life of George F. Haas (1976)

More information about Don Herron




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Boring legal stuff: Copyright 2009 Vince Emery Productions. "Vince Emery" is a registered trademark of Vince Emery Productions. "The Dashiell Hammett Tour" is a registered trademark and service mark of Don Herron. "Vince Emery Productions," "emerybooks.com," and the Vince Emery signature are trademarks of Vince Emery Productions. So there.