Home > Raymond Chandler

Chandler was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1888, but moved to Britain in 1895 when his parents divorced. He entered Dulwich College in 1900, and was naturalised as a British citizen in 1907 in order to take the Civil Service exam. He passed the exam and took a job at the Admiralty, where he worked for just over a year. His first poem was published during this time. After leaving the Civil Service, Chandler worked as a jobbing journalist, and continued to write poetry in the late RomanticRomanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe and stressed strong emotion, imagination, freedom from classical correctness in art forms, and rebellion against social conventions. It followed the style.

Chandler returned to the U.S. in 19121912 is a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar) Events January 1 Establishment of Republic of China. January 6 New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U. January 17 British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four begin the and trained as a bookkeeper and accountant. In 1917Events January 2 The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank. January 22 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. January 25 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million January 25 Anti-, he enlisted in the Canadian Army and fought in FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents.. After the armistice he moved to Los AngelesThis article is about the city in California. For other uses of 'Los Angeles' see Los Angeles (disambiguation The City of Los Angeles widely known by its abbreviation L. is a large coastal metropolis in Southern California in the western United States. and began an affair with an older woman (Cissy Pascal), whom he later married. By 19321932 is the leap year starting on Friday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 3 British arrest and intern Mohandas Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel January 8 In Britain the Archbishop of Canterbury forbids church remarriage of divorcees Jan Chandler had attained a vice-presidency at Dabney Oil Syndicate but lost this well-paying job as a result of his alcoholism.

He taught himself to write pulp fictionPulp magazines often called simply "pulps", were inexpensive text fiction magazines widely published in the 1930s 1950s. The first "pulp" is considered to be Frank Munsey's revamped Argosy of 1894. Most of the few pulps still thriving today are science fi in an effort to draw an income from his creative talents, and his first story was published in Black MaskFor information on Black Mask, the surrealist group, see Black Mask (NYC). Black Mask was a 'pulp' magazine launched in 1920 by H. Mencken and George Jean Nathan. When, eight issues later, the magazine was sold to the publishers, Joseph Shaw took over the in 1933. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939.

Chandler worked as a Hollywood screenwriter following the success of his novels, working with Billy Wilder on James M. Cain's novel Double Indemnity ( 1944), and writing his only original screenplay, The Blue Dahlia (1946).

Cissy died in 1954 and Chandler, heartbroken and suffering from a painful nervous disease, turned once again to drink. His writing suffered in quality and quantity, and he attempted suicide in 1955. He died in 1959 of pneumonia.

Chandler's finely wrought prose was widely admired by critics and writers from the high-brow ( W.H. Auden, Evelyn Waugh) to the low-brow ( Ian Fleming). Although his swift-moving, hardboiled style was inspired largely by Dashiell Hammett, his use of lyrical similes in this context was quite original. Turns of phrase such as "The minutes went by on tiptoe, with their fingers to their lips" (The Lady in the Lake, 1943) , have become characteristic of private-eye fiction, and he has given his name to the critical term Chandleresque. His style is also the subject of innumerable parodies and pastiches.

Chandler was also a perceptive critic of pulp fiction, and his essay " The Simple Art of Murder" is a standard academic reference.