Raymond Chandler Speaking

by Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner (Editor), Katherine Sorley Walker (Editor), Paul Skenazy (Introduction)

Overview

Tough-minded and typically idiosyncratic, here is Chandler on Chandler, the mystery novel, writing, Hollywood, TV, publishing, cats, and famous crimes. This skillfully edited selection of letters, articles, and notes also includes the short story "A Couple of Writers" and the first chapters of Chandler's last Philip Marlowe novel, The Poodle Springs Story, left unfinished at his death. Paul Skenazy has provided a new introduction for this edition as well as a new selected bibliography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520208353
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	04/30/1997
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	275
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) was born in Chicago but raised in London, returning to the U.S. to live in California in 1919. His first story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot," was published in 1933 and The Big Sleep, his first novel, in 1939.Paul Skenazy is the author of The New Wild West: The Urban Mysteries of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler and he is Professor of American Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Date of Birth:

July 23, 1888

Date of Death:

March 26, 1959

Place of Birth:

Chicago Illinois

Place of Death:

La Jolla, California

Education:

Educated in England, France, and Germany

Table of Contents

Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Foreword
Chronology
1. CHANDLER ON CHANDLER
2. CHANDLER ON THE MYSTERY NOVEL
3. CHANDLER ON THE CRAFT OF WRITING
4. A Couple of Writers
5. CHANDLER ON THE FILM WORLD AND
TELEVISION
6. CHANDLER ON PUBLISHING
7. CHANDLER ON CATS
8. CHANDLER ON FAMOUS CRIMES
9. CHANDLER ON HIS NOVELS, SHORT
STORIES AND PHILIP MARLOWE
10. The Poodle Springs Story
Bibliography prepared by Paul Skenazy
Index

Editorial Reviews

Hiney, a journalist for the Spectator and the London Observer, offers a prismatic view into the life of novelist Raymond Thornton Chandler (1888-1959). In addition to using previously published material by and about Chandler from both familiar and little-known sources, Hiney peered into university archives for a close inspection of Chandler's correspondence and notebooks. Hiney traces the writer's nomadic childhood from pre-Mafia Chicago to pre-telephone Nebraska, from Quaker Ireland and Edwardian England to his education south of London at Dulwich College and his 1913 arrival in the "mean streets" of Los Angeles, the later setting for his crime fiction. As recluse, oil executive, poet, screenwriter and gentlemen charmer, Chandler was "beyond eccentric" to those who came in contact with him. Living at over 100 addresses, he sustained no long friendships, and was "variously rich, poor, drunk, teetotal, sacked, married and suicidal." Not until age 50 did he move from pulps to Alfred Knopf, where the 1939 debut of streetwise Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep attracted some notice in the press. Hiney contrasts critical dismissals with later acclaim, noting that the current popularity of "Chandleresque writers" (James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard) and filmmakers (Quentin Tarantino) has triggered a reappraisal of hardboiled roots. No rough edges have been filed off for this revealing, well-written biography, and Hiney's fast-paced prose, punctuated with the voices of those who knew him well, often evoke edgy atmospherics and dark moods reminiscent of Chandler's own fiction. (May) FYI: In April, University of California will release Raymond Chandler Speaking, a collection of the writer's letters, articles and notes on publishing, cats, crime and more edited by Dorothy Gardiner and Kathrine Sorley Walker ($12.95 paper, 275p ISBN 0-520-20835-8)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

There has been a remarkable resurgence of interest in Chandler in recent years. He is now included in the prestigious Library of America series (Classic Returns, LJ 9/15/95), and the first major biography on him in 20 years was recently published (LJ 4/1/97). This 1962 volume collects a wide number of Chandler's personal letters from 1950 to 1959, divided by subjecte.g., Chandler on mystery, on publishingplus the opening chapters of The Poodle Springs Story, a Philip Marlowe novel left unfinished at the time of Chandler's death and which was ultimately completed by Robert B. Parker (LJ 7/89). His letters reveal him to be a witty yet softspoken and scholarly mannot at all what you'd expect of a hard-boiled mystery author. Essential for all Chandler hounds.

Library Journal