Raymond Chandler

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Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959), an American-British novelist and screenwriter.

Chandler became a detective fiction writer in 1932, after losing his career as an oil company executive during the Great Depression.

In 1933, a popular pulp magazine, Blackmailers Don't Shoot, his first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot," was published in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine.

In 1939, his first book, The Big Sleeper, was published.

Chandler wrote seven books in addition to his short stories (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker).

Some more than once, but not Playback has been turned into motion pictures.

He was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America in the year before his death.

He is thought to be the founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, as well as Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and other Black Mask writers.

Philip Marlowe, the protagonist of his books, is regarded by some as synonymous with "private detective."

Both were portrayed in Humphrey Bogart's films, who many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe. At least three of Chandler's books have been regarded as masterpieces: Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Little Sister (1949), and The Long Goodbye (1953).

"Clearly the first book since Hammett's The Glass Key," published more than twenty years ago, was lauded as a serious and significant mainstream book with elements of mystery."

Chandler's name has risen in recent years.

Early life

Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888, the son of Florence Dart (Thornton) and Maurice Benjamin Chandler. He spent his early years in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, with his mother and father near his cousins and aunt (his mother's sister) and uncle. Chandler's father, an alcoholic civil engineer who worked on the railway, had left the family. Ray's mother, who immigrated from Ireland, and his son, Peter, moved them to Upper Norwood, England, in 1900, where they now reside in what is now the London Borough of Croydon, England. When they lived with Chandler's maternal grandmother, another uncle, a respected lawyer in Waterford, Ireland, reluctantly supported them. Raymond was a first cousin of actor Max Adrian, a founding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; Max's mother, Mabel, was Florence Thornton's sister. Chandler was classically educated at Dulwich College, London, (a public school whose alumni include authors P. G. Wodehouse and C. S. Forester). He and his mother's relatives spent some of his childhood summers in Waterford. He did not go to university, but rather spent time in Paris and Munich improving his foreign language skills. He was registered as a British subject in 1907 in order to sit the civil service examination, which he passed. He then began working in Admiralty, but lasted just over a year. At that time, his first poem was published.

Chandler, who resigned due to his family's indignation, became a reporter for the Daily Express and also wrote for the Westminster Gazette. He was unsuccessful as a journalist, but he did write reviews and started writing romantic poetry. Richard Barham Middleton's brief encounter with him is said to have inspired him to write more. "I met Richard Middleton, a young, bearded man, and sad-eyed man." ... I should add that he died in Antwerp a short time afterwards, a suicide of despair. Middleton left me with a higher degree of skill than I was ever expected to have; and if he didn't make a go of it, it wasn't likely that I would have." "Of course in those days, there were...clever young men who made a living as freelancers for the numerous literary weeklies," the author said, "I was certainly not a smart young man." "I was never a happy youth man," the narrator said.

He borrowed money from his Waterford uncle, who wished it to be repaid with interest and returned to America, visiting his aunt and uncle before settling in San Francisco for a time, finishing ahead of schedule. In late 1912, his mother joined him. They moved to Los Angeles in 1913, where he strung tennis rackets, picked fruit, and survived a time of chopping and saving after being inspired by Chandler's attorney/oilman friend Warren Lloyd. He found steady employment with the Los Angeles Creamery. In 1917, he travelled to Vancouver, where he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in August. With the 16th Battalion, C.E.F., he saw war in France's trenches. At the time, the Canadian Scottish Regiment was twice hospitalized with Spanish flu during the pandemic and was flying in the fledgling Royal Air Force (RAF).

He returned to Los Angeles by way of Canada and soon began a love affair with Pearl Eugenie ("Cissy") Pascal, a married woman 18 years old and Gordon Pascal's stepmother, with whom Chandler had enlisted. Cissy divorced Julian in 1920, but Chandler's mother disapproved of the marriage and refused to allow it to be recognized. Chandler's mother and Cissy were both his mother and Cissy for the next four years. After Florence Chandler's death on September 26, 1923, he was allowed to marry Cissy. They were married on February 6, 1924. Chandler, who began as a bookkeeper and auditor in 1922, was fired as a highly paid vice president of the Dabney Oil Syndicate in 1931, but alcoholism, mismanagement, promiscuity with female workers, and threatened suicides contributed to his dismissal a year later.

Chandler converted his latent writing talent to make a living by researching and imitating a novelette by Erle Stanley Gardner. In 1933, Chandler's first commercial work, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot," was published in Black Mask magazine. According to genre historian Herbert Ruhm, "Chandler," who labored and painfully, revising again and again, it took five months to write the novel. Erle Stanley Gardner could write a pulp story in three to four days, but it didn't turn out an estimated one thousand."

In 1939, Robert Marlowe's first book, The Big Sleeper, was published in the first person. Chandler outlined in a letter to his English publisher, Hamish Hamilton, about how he started reading pulp magazines and later wrote about them:

Farewell, My Lovely (1940), his second Marlowe book, became the basis for three film adaptations by other writers, including the 1944 film Murder My Sweet, which marked the debut of the Marlowe character played by Dick Powell (whose depiction of Marlowe Chandler applauded). Chandler himself was demanded as a screenwriter after his literary success and film adaptations. He and Billy Wilder co-wrote Double Indemnity (1944), based on James M. Cain's book of the same name. The noir screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award. "I would only lead the design and I would also do a lot of the dialogue," Said Wilder said, and I would then start constructing." Wilder said that the dialogue that makes the film so memorable was mainly Chandler's.

The Blue Dahlia (1946), Chandler's first film script. Chandler had not written a denouement for the script, and, according to producer John Houseman, he could finish the script only if inebriated, with the help of round-the-clock secretaries and drivers, which Houseman accepted. Chandler's second Academy Award nomination for screenplay was given to the script.

Chandler appeared on Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951), an ironic murder tale based on Patricia Highsmith's book, which was considered implausible. Chandler and Hitchcock clashed with Hitchcock, but they stopped talking after Hitchcock learned Chandler was referred to as "that fat bastard." When holding his nose, Chandler's two rough screenplays were tossing into the studio garbage can, but Chandler retained the lead screenwriting credit, as did Cenzi Ormonde.

Chandler and the Chandlers moved to La Jolla, San Diego, California, where Chandler wrote two more Philip Marlowe books, The Long Goodbye and Playback, which was his last complete work. The latter was derived from an unproduced courtroom drama screenplay scripted for Universal Studios.

Four chapters of a novel that had been unfinished at his death were turned into a final Philip Marlowe book, Poodle Springs, by mystery writer and Chandler admirer Robert B. Parker in 1989. Parker addresses authorship with Chandler. Perpetence to Dream, Parker's sequel to The Big Sleep, was released with excerpts from the original book. "The Pencil," Chandler's last Marlowe short story, circa 1957, was titled "The Pencil." Powers Boothe, a private eye actress starring Powers Boothe as Marlowe, later formed the basis for an episode of the HBO miniseries (1983–86).

"The Princess and the Pedlar" (1917), a little-known comedy operetta with libretto by Chandler and music by Julian Pascal, was discovered among the Library of Congress' uncatalogued collections in 2014. The work was never released or produced. The Raymond Chandler estate has dismissed it as "no more than... a curiosity." A tiny group under the direction of actor and director Paul Sand's has applied for permission to produce the opera in Los Angeles.

Cissy Chandler died in 1954 after a long illness. Chandler, who was heartbroken and inebriated, refused to inter her cremated remains, and the pair sat in a storage locker in the basement of Cypress View Mausoleum for 57 years.

Chandler's loneliness after Cissy's death; he recovered to alcohol, but not for long; and the quality and quantity of his writing suffered. He attempted suicide in 1955. Judith Freeman of The Long Embrace says it was "a cry for assistance" after she informed the police that he had planned to murder himself. Chandler's personal and professional lives were enhanced and complicated by the women to whom he was attracted, including Helga Greene (his literary agent), Jean Fracasse (George Orwell's widow), and Natasha Spender (Stephen Spender's wife). Chandler obtained his citizenship in the United States in 1956, but he retained British citizenship.

He returned to La Jolla after a break in England. He died at Scripps Memorial Hospital of pneumonial peripheral vascular shock and prerenal uremia (according to the death certificate), in 1959. Helga Greene inherited Chandler's $60,000 estate after winning in a 1960 court suit brought by Fracasse challenging Chandler's holographic codicil to his will.

Chandler is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego, California. The Life of Raymond Chandler, Chandler's son, was discussed in Frank MacShane's book, and he was laid to rest in Cypress View Mausoleum next to Cissy. Rather, he was buried in Mount Hope because he had left no funeral or burial instructions.

Loren Latker, a Chandler historian who worked with attorney Aissa Wayne (daughter of John Wayne), filed a petition in 2010 to disinter Cissy's remains and reinter them with Chandler in Mount Hope. Judge Richard S. Whitney delivered an order honoring Latker's request following a hearing in September 2010.

Cissy's ashes were moved from Cypress View to Mount Hope on February 14, 2011; they were laid to a new grave marker above Chandler's as they had wished. About 100 people attended the service, which featured readings by the Rev. Randal Gardner, Powers Boothe, Judith Freeman, and Aissa Wayne were among the attendees. According to a quote from The Big Sleep, "Dead men are heavier than broken hearts." The original gravestone in Chandler, placed by Jean Fracasse and her children, is still at the head of his grave; the new one is at the foot;

Later life and death

Cissy Chandler died in 1954 after a long illness. Chandler refused to inter her cremated remains for 57 years in a storage locker in the basement of Cypress View Mausoleum, heartbroken and inebriated.

Chandler's loneliness after Cissy's death; he reverted to alcohol, but not for long; and the content and quantity of his writing suffered. He attempted suicide in 1955. Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved was "a cry for help," Judith Freeman says, considering that he called the cops before deciding to murder himself, it was "a cry for help." Chandler's personal and professional lives were both enhanced and complicated by the women to whom he was attracted, including Helga Greene (his literary agent), Jean Fracasse (George Orwell's widow), and Natasha Spender (Stephen Spender's wife). Chandler converted to the United States in 1956, but retaining his British citizenship.

He returned to La Jolla after a break in England. He died at Scripps Memorial Hospital of pneumonial peripheral vascular shock and prerenal uremia (according to the death certificate), in 1959. After winning in a 1960 complaint brought by Fracasse challenging Chandler's holographic codicil to his will, Helga Greene inherited Chandler's $60,000 estate.

Chandler is buried in San Diego, California, at Mount Hope Cemetery. Raymond Chandler's life, as Frank MacShane said in his biography, was sober and placed in Cypress View Mausoleum next to Cissy. Rather, he was buried in Mount Hope because he had left no funeral or burial instructions.

Loren Latker, a Chandler scholar who was with the support of attorney Aissa Wayne (daughter of John Wayne), brought a petition in 2010 to disinter Cissy's remains and reinter them with Chandler in Mount Hope. Judge Richard S. Whitney issued an order granting Latker's request after a hearing in September 2010 in San Diego Superior Court.

Cissy's ashes were moved from Cypress View to Mount Hope on February 14, 2011, and they were laid to rest beneath a new grave marker above Chandler's as they had wished. About 100 people attended the service, which also included readings by the Rev. Randal Gardner, Powers Boothe, Judith Freeman, and Aissa Wayne are among the notables of Randal Gardner's lifetime. According to a quote from The Big Sleep, "dead men are heavier than broken hearts." Chandler's original gravestone, which was planted by Jean Fracasse and her children, is still at the top of his grave; the new one is at the foot.

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