Willeford

by Don Herron

1997, Dennis McMillan, Tucson, Arizona. 470 pages. Black cloth with gold gilt. Dust jacket.

The author, who has written several books and articles about Dashiell Hammett (and hosted a "Hammett" tour in San Francisco), met Willeford in 1984. The book is made up of sort of a hodge-podge of vignettes about personal observations, stories and literary observations covering each of Willeford's writings. An interesting layout, which he handles very well. One chapter (over a hundred pages) contains conversations between Herron and Willeford. Of special interest is a 70+ page bibliography of Willeford's books, articles and even his reviews (he wrote book reviews for several periodicals early in his career.).