Raymond Chandler, on writing:

The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.

- Raymond Chandler.

Recommended reading - Killer in the Rain

 

Killer in the Rain

by Raymond Chandler.
 
Published by Ballantine Books.
First published 1964.
Mass Market Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0345320204
ISBN-13: 978-0345320209
 
Description:
 
Anything Chandler writes about grips the mind from the first sentence. – Daily Telegraph.
 
One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain. – Sunday Times.

Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes. – Anthony Burgess.
 
Killer in the Rain collects together eight classic short stories by Raymond Chandler.

It was in the pulp detective magazines of the 1930s that Raymond Chandler's definitive take on the hard-boiled detective story first appeared.

Here then, from the well-thumbed pages of 'Black Mask' and 'Dime Detective Magazine', are eight of his finest stories including 'The Man Who Liked Dogs', 'The Lady in the Lake' and 'Bay City Blues'.

Sharper than a hoodlum's switchblade, more exciting than an unexpected red-head and stronger than a double shot of whisky, they are packed full of the punchy poetry and laconic wit that makes Chandler the undisputed master of his genre.

Best-known as the creator of the original private eye, Philip Marlowe, Raymond 

Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in 1959.

Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, and he is widely regarded as one of the very greatest writers of detective fiction.

His books include The Big Sleep, The Little Sister, Farewell, My Lovely, The Long Good-bye, The Lady in the Lake, Playback, Killer in the Rain, The High Window and Trouble is My Business.

Raymond Chandler, on writing:

The most durable thing in writing is style,

and style is the most valuable investment a writer can make with his time.

It pays off slowly,

your agent will sneer at it,

your publisher will misunderstand it,

and it will take people you have never heard of to convince them by slow degrees that the writer who puts his individual mark on the way he writes will always pay off.

- Raymond Chandler.

On this day in movie history - The Big Sleep (1946)

The Big Sleep

directed by Howard Hawks,

written by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman,

based on the novel by Raymond Chandler,

was released in the United States on August 23, 1946.

Music by Max Steiner.

Cast:

Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Sonia Darrin, Dorothy Malone, Regis Toomey, Peggy Knudsen, Charles Waldron, Charles D. Brown, Bob Steele, Elisha Cook, Jr., Louis Jean Heydt, Trevor Bardette, Tommy Rafferty, Ben Welden, Tom Fadden, Theodore von Eltz.

Born on this day – Raymond Chandler:

 

Writer

July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959

Credits:

Books:

Books to Die For (2012); Double Indemnity (1944); Farewell, My Lovely (1940); Five Murders (1944); Five Sinister Characters (1945); Goldfish (1981); Great Law and Order Stories (1990); Hard-Boiled Detectives (1953); I’ll Be Waiting (2020); Killer in the Rain (1964); Los Angeles Noir 2 (2010); Mandarin's Jade (1937); No Crimes In The Mountains (1941); Only to Sleep (2018); Pearls are a Nuisance (1958); Perchance to Dream (1991); Pickup on Noon Street (1952); Playback (1958); Poodle Springs (1989); Pulp Fiction - The Dames (2008); Pulp Frictions: Hardboiled Stories (1996); Red Wind (1946); Selected Letters (1981); Smart-Aleck Kill (1953); Spanish Blood (1946); The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century (2000); The Big Sleep (1939); The Black-Eyed Blonde (2014); The Blue Dahlia (1976); The Curtain (1936); The Finger Man (1947); The Goodbye Coast (2022); The High Window (1942); The Lady in the Lake (1943); The Little Book of Horrors: Tiny Tales of Terror (1992); The Little Sister (1949); The Long Goodbye (1953); The Longman Anthology of Detective Fiction (2004); The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories (1988); The Man Who Liked Dogs (1996); The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler (1976); The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories (1996); The Oxford Book of Detective Stories (2000); The Second Murderer (2023); The Simple Art of Murder (1950); The Smell of Fear (1965); The World of Raymond Chandler (2014); Trouble is My Business (1950); Try The Girl (1937); Writers: Their Lives and Works (2018); Writing Los Angeles (2002).

Movies and television:

77 Sunset Strip (1958); And Now Tomorrow (1944); Aspetterò (1978); Cineficción Radio (2021); Climax! (1954); Danger (1953); Double Indemnity (1944 / 1973); Fallen Angels (1993–1995); Farewell, My Lovely (1975); Ian Fleming and Raymond Chandler (2006); Ich werde warten (1982); Kraft Theatre / The Philco Television Playhouse (1949); Lady in the Lake (1946); Los 10 magníficos (2008); Lux Video Theatre (1954); Marlowe (1969 / 2007 / 2022); Mike Case in: The Big Kiss Off (2013); Morning Patrol (1987); Murder, My Sweet (1944); Nash Airflyte Theatre (1951); Omnibus (1969); Once You Meet a Stranger (1996); Philip Marlowe (1959–1960); Philip Marlowe, Private Eye (1983–1986); Poodle Springs (1998); Robert Montgomery Presents (1950); Schlitz Playhouse (1957); Smart Philip (2003); Storyboard (1961); Strangers on a Train (1951); Studio One (1951–1953); The Big Sleep (1946 / 1978); The Blue Dahlia (1946); The Brasher Doubloon (1947); The Falcon Takes Over (1942); The Great Detectives (1999); The Long Goodbye (1973 / 2014); The Long Goodbye: Tom Williams on Raymond Chandler (2013); The Unseen (1945); Time to Kill (1942); Triple Feature (2016); TV de Vanguarda (1957).

Recommended reading - Raymond Chandler: Stories and Early Novels (1995)

Raymond Chandler: Stories and Early Novels (1995).

 

Anthology by Raymond Chandler.

Edited by Frank MacShane.

 
ISBN-10: 1883011078
ISBN-13: 978-1883011079
 
Contents:
 
Pulp Stories: Blackmailers Don’t Shoot; Smart-Aleck Kill; Finger Man; Nevada Gas; Spanish Blood; Guns at Cyrano’s; Pick-Up on Noon Street; Goldfish; Red Wind; The King in Yellow; Pearls Are a Nuisance; Trouble Is My Business; I’ll Be Waiting. Novels: The Big Sleep; Farewell, My Lovely; The High Window. Chronology. Note on the texts. Notes.
 
Description:
 

In Raymond Chandler’s hands, the pulp crime story became a haunting mystery of power and corruption, set against a modern cityscape both lyrical and violent. With humor, and an unerring sense of dialogue and the telling detail, he created a fictional universe out of the dark side of au unlit Los Angeles. In the process, he transformed both the crime novel and American writing.

 

Stories and Early Novels includes the first three novels featuring Chandler’s great creation, private eye Philip Marlowe: tough, disillusioned, and sensitive. In The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, and The High Window, Marlowe’s investigations lead him from Los Angeles shanties and honkytonks to the highest reaches of power, encountering a world of gangsters and crooked politicians, lost souls and small-time operators. Thirteen stories from the pulp magazines Black Mask and Dime Detective include such classics as “Red Wind” and “Trouble Is My Business.” This volume, with its companion, Later Novels & Other Writings, comprises the most comprehensive edition available of America’s greatest mystery writer.

 

The Library of America, a nonprofit publisher, is dedicated to preserving the works of America’s greatest writers in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts.

Raymond Chandler, on writing:

The challenge is to write about real things magically.

 - Raymond Chandler.