RAYMOND CHANDLER
Raymond Chandler - LIFE STORIES
2/6/1939 The Big Sleep and Philip Marlowe
On this day in 1939, Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep was published. Chandler
was fifty-one, an ex-oil company executive who had taken up writing at the age
of forty-five after being fired for alcohol-inspired absenteeism. This was his
first novel, and the first of seven featuring the ever-inimitable and much-copied
Philip Marlowe.
10/24/1958 Philip Marlowe's Bad Idea
On this day in 1958 Raymond Chandler began his last novel, the never-completed (by
him) Poodle Springs. This was Chandler's name for Palm Springs, where "every
third elegant creature you see has at least one poodle," and where Philip
Marlowe thought he might settle down with his new wife, the socialite Linda
Loring. Chandler lost interest after a few chapters; Marlowe probably would have
too.
11/27/1953 Raymond Chandler's Long Goodbye
On this day in 1953 Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye was published. Many say
it is his best novel, and the biographers trace many connections to Chandler's
personal life, despite being told not to: "Yes, I am exactly like the characters
in my books.... I am thirty-eight years old and have been for the last twenty
years. I do not regard myself as a dead shot, but I am a pretty dangerous man
with a wet towel."
Raymond Chandler - LIFE STORIES
2/6/1939 The Big Sleep and Philip Marlowe
On this day in 1939, Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep was published. Chandler
was fifty-one, an ex-oil company executive who had taken up writing at the age
of forty-five after being fired for alcohol-inspired absenteeism. This was his
first novel, and the first of seven featuring the ever-inimitable and much-copied
Philip Marlowe.
10/24/1958 Philip Marlowe's Bad Idea
On this day in 1958 Raymond Chandler began his last novel, the never-completed (by
him) Poodle Springs. This was Chandler's name for Palm Springs, where "every
third elegant creature you see has at least one poodle," and where Philip
Marlowe thought he might settle down with his new wife, the socialite Linda
Loring. Chandler lost interest after a few chapters; Marlowe probably would have
too.
11/27/1953 Raymond Chandler's Long Goodbye
On this day in 1953 Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye was published. Many say
it is his best novel, and the biographers trace many connections to Chandler's
personal life, despite being told not to: "Yes, I am exactly like the characters
in my books.... I am thirty-eight years old and have been for the last twenty
years. I do not regard myself as a dead shot, but I am a pretty dangerous man
with a wet towel."