I don’t think the Hardboiled Detective would have had the staying power it did if it weren’t for Raymond Chandler (1888-1959). Pulp fiction, unfairly has been considered the lower art form of literature. But you can’t deny the the masterful way Chandler wrote, using metaphors and similes in such a way that was groundbreaking at the time and then copied and parodied the world over years later.
Born in Chicago in 1888, Chandler spent his early childhood in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. After his alcoholic father bounced, his Irish mother decided the best chance for her children to get decent schooling was to move to the UK. At age 12 in 1900 the family moved to modern day Croydon a borough of London.
In 1907 Chandler was naturalized as a British subject and worked in the Royal Navy in an admiralty job which he wasn’t a fan of. He quit the job in the admiralty and became a journalist, it was during this time some of his poetry was published.
He moved back to the US in 1912, settling in Los Angeles in 1913 where he did odd jobs and picked fruit like Tom Joad. With the outbreak of war he went to Vancouver in 1917 and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. On the Western Front he fought alongside the Gordon Highlanders.
After the war he moved back to Los Angeles and married his wife Cissy Pascal. He got work as a bookkeeper and auditor starting in 1922. By 1931 he was a highly paid vice president of the Dabney Oil Syndicate, but his alcoholism would make that life short-lived. He was let go and the world is better for it.
When it comes to writing professionally Raymond Chandler was a late bloomer. He sold his first short story in 1933 at the age of 45 after losing his job at Dabney. Six years later he published his first novel, The Big Sleep and the rest is history.
Before The Big Sleep, he wrote 20 novellas and many other short stories for Black Mask and other pulp rags, many with an unnamed or different named detective. After the success of The Big Sleep, they reprinted these stories as paperbacks and rechristened whoever the shamus was as ‘Phillip Marlowe.’ Some of those short stories, like Killer in the Rain (1935 – Black Mask) for instance were cannibalized and used as material in The Big Sleep.
After his death, Killer in the Rain (1964) was the title of eight pre-Big Sleep stories which were featured in pulp fiction magazines. All of which were cannibalized in one way or another for future Marlowe novels like; Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady in the Lake (1943), and The Long Goodbye (1953).
All of these were later adapted into classic Film Noir‘s which we’ve talked about in previous posts along with their connections to pulp fiction. So I’m not going to beat that dead horse. Instead this post will be about Chandler himself.
In an essay he wrote for The Atlantic Monthly titled “The Simple Art of Murder,” he compared the private eye to a modern knight.
Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man, and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor.”
The Simple Art of Murder for The Atlantic Monthly December 1944
The Simple Art of Murder also later became a posthumous book that featured some pre-Big Sleep short stories he wrote for pulp fiction magazines as well as the essay he wrote for The Atlantic Monthly. In the essay he critiques English Mystery writers like Dame Agatha Christie, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle saying:
“The English may not always be the best writers in the world, but they are incomparably the best dull writers.”
Yikes. (Editors note: We at American Pulps are huge fans of British murder mystery shows like Midsomer Murders so don’t @ us). But you can say one thing about Chandler’s writing, he certainly wasn’t dull.
He was the master of the opening paragraph. The opening line to a book or a story is the hook, it’s what people look at in the store and say, “oh shit I have to get this,” or “Meh.” Chandler knew how to paint the picture with his pen and grab the reader. Get this opening paragraph from The Long Goodbye.
“The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of The Dancers. The parking lot attendant had brought the car out and he was still holding the door open because Terry Lennox’s left foot was still dangling outside, as if he had forgotten he had one. He had a young-looking face but his hair was bone white. You could tell by his eyes that he was plastered to the hairline, but otherwise he looked like any other nice young guy in a dinner jacket who had been spending too much money in a joint that exists for that purpose and for no other.”
Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye (1953)
Chandler not only wrote prose, he penned a few screenplays. Earning two Academy Award nominations as a screenwriter for the two Film Noir classics, Double Indemnity (1944) and The Blue Dahlia (1946).
Further Reading:
This CrimeReads article features audio from when Ian Fleming interviewed Raymond Chandler. They discuss writing villians, thrillers, and plot a contract killing. Also, Chandler sounds hammered which is awesome.
These American Pulps articles feature a few Raymond Chandler drink recipes and an Ian Fleming drink recipe. They are part of our “Drink Like a Character” series.
Raymond Chandler Gimlet – The Long Goodbye
James Bond – Vesper Martini
Champagne Cocktail – The Big Sleep
A while back I purchased a map of Raymond Chandler’s Hollywood by Herb Lester Associates. Check out their site they have tons of great books, prints, and illustrated maps.
