Category: Mystery

Lifespan: (July 23, 1888 - March 26, 1959)

Interesting & Unique Facts: Chandler was born in Illinois. He became a British subject in 1907 in order to take the Civil Service examination, which he passed with the third-highest score. He then took an Admiralty job lasting slightly more than a year. His first poem was published during that time. He eventually came back to the US and moved to Los Angeles.

To earn a living with his creative talent, he taught himself to write pulp fiction; his first story, “Blackmailers Don't Shoot”, was published in Black Mask magazine in 1933; his first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. Literary success led to work as a Hollywood screenwriter: he and Billy Wilder co-wrote Double Indemnity (1944), based upon on James M. Cain's novel of the same name.

All the settings for Chandler's novels are real, but the names have been changed: Bay City is Santa Monica, Gray Lake is Silver Lake, and Idle Valley a synthesis of the rich San Fernando Valley communities.

Author's work in order (with publication dates):

Philip Marlowe Series

• The Big Sleep (1939)
• Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
• The High Window (1942)
• The Lady in the Lake (1943)
• The Little Sister (1949) [also published as: Marlow in 1969]
• The Long Goodbye (1953)
• Playback (1958)
• Poodle Springs (1989)

Short Stories Collections (some overlap):

Note: [Many of these collections overlap]

• Five Murderers (1944)
• Five Sinister Characters (1945)
• Finger Man and Other Stories (1946)
• Red Wind (1946)
• Spanish Blood (1946)
• The Simple Art of Murder
• Trouble Is My Business: Four Stories from The Simple Art of Murder (1951)
• Pick-Up on Noon Street (1953)
• Smart-Aleck Kill (1953)
• Pearls Are a Nuisance (1953)
• Killer in the Rain (1964)
• The Smell of Fear (1965)
• Raymond Chandler: Collected Stories (2002)