Raymond Chandler: A Literary Reference

by Robert F. Moss (Editor)

The fifth volume in Carroll and Graf's successful series of literary references, which has included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Hardboiled Mystery Writers, and The Beats, provides an engagingly documented account of Raymond Chandler's life and work. Born in Chicago in 1888 but raised in Victorian England, Chandler was publishing poetry in London literary magazines when he set out at twenty-four for California and a business career. Two decades later he held the directorship of a lucrative oil conglomerate, until heavy drinking ended all that. Forced to return to professional writing for his livelihood, with artistic aspirations Chandler began writing detective stories in the hard-boiled style of Dashiell Hammett for popular pulp magazines. Then, in 1939, he published The Big Sleep, and the world met the slick, wisecracking sleuth Philip Marlowe in a decadent, glamorous Los Angeles rife with gangsters, crooked politicians, and dissolute movie queens. Amply illustrated with personal photographs and with reproductions of manuscript pages, letters, print ads, movie promotions, dust jackets, and paperback covers, this volume follows Chandler's career from his early pulp fiction to his classic detective novels.

Genres: Biography, Reference

352 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

Reviews

[Alonzo Church · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating collection of pictures, reviews, articles, and selected Chandler essays and letters. This serves as a history of the man’s literary development and depiction of the evolution of his literary reputation.

A must for those wanting to learn about Chandler.

[Budge Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

First and foremost an engaging piece of scholarship – it gathers together pictures, letters, evidence from Chandler’s life in written and graphic form, elements of biography you can read while you absorb the visuals … it’s at once a book you can read and a resource you can consult … entertaining, informative, stimulating.
I don’t want to trivialise it by describing it as assembling some of the trivia of a writing life, in fact it’s an exciting piece of scholarship … energising … thought provoking. It takes references from popular culture (book covers, film posters and stills, adverts), evidencing Chandler’s impact on popular culture while delivering biographical insights and commentary on his writing.
Pictures of people, places, letters, a paper trail of Chandler’s life in literature and cinema. Utterly absorbing … you get a few pages into it, just skimming, dipping in randomly … a few pages in and you realise you’re in danger of turning into a nerd.
A book you could maybe read cover to cover, a book you’re more likely to dip into, travel back and forth – it seemed obvious to me that you should use it in parallel with a more conventional biography (in fact I read it in parallel with a couple of other books – Tom Hiney’s “Raymond Chandler” & Anthony Fowles’ “Raymond Chandler”). At this point I have to start thinking about synonyms for ‘nerd’. ‘Geek’? Chandler is easily one of my favourite writers … it was probably inevitable I’d one day decide to read up on the man himself.
So, an outstanding piece … a big, heavy, informative and entertaining book – warning, it can become absorbing.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book works on my levels: it's a biography of Raymond Chandler that includes a wealth of photographs, letters, book covers, movie posters, excerpts of book and movie reviews, essays, and more. This is a great non-fiction introduction to the life and works of Chandler.