9/15/1939 Hello, Farewell

September 15, 1939.  On this date Raymond Chandler finished the first draft of Farewell, My Lovely, his second novel about L.A. private eye Phillip Marlowe. In my opinion, his masterpiece.

8/17/1942 Marlowe looks out a high window

August 17, 1942.  This date saw the publication of The High Window, Raymond Chandler's third novel about L.A. private eye Philip Marlowe.   (Has anyone else pointed out that his novels arrange the same way chronologcally as alphabetically?  Just like Sue Grafton's sort of.)

And speaking of the alphabet, this story features characters named Marlowe,  Murdock (two of them), Magic, Merle, Morny, and Morningstar.  Why do authors do that sort of thing?  What's wrong with the other letters?

2/6/1947 The Brasher Doubloon turns up

February 6, 1947.  The Brasher Doubloon premiered on this day.  The movie was based on Raymond Chandler's The High Window.  George Montgomery starred as private eye Philip Marlowe.

Film critic Dennis Schwartz said it was: "just smart enough of a film noir to be considered a classic."

1/11/1936 When Raymond met Dashiell

January 11, 1936.  As J.Kingston Pierce wrote: "We now think of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler as being joined at the literary hip," but the fact is that these two authors met only once.  This was the date, at a luncheon in Los Angeles, celebrating contributors to Black Mask Magazine. 

Hammett was essentially washed up by that point, having written all the novels he would ever finish.  Chandler - the older man - had only published short stories so far.

Other still-remembered pulp masters at that meal included Norbert Davis, Dwight Babcock, and Horace McCoy.  You can see a photo of the event here.

"Everything goes back to Saint Hammett and Saint Chandler.” - Larry Kleinfeld

10/1/1940 Hello to Farewell My Lovely

October 1, 1940.  Farewell, My Lovely was published by Knopf on this day.  It was Raymond Chandler's second novel about Los Angeles P.I. Philip Marlowe, and my favorite.  It is a classic noir story with a hard luck guy chasing a beautiful dame who done him wrong and continues to do him wronger.

In this case the loving loser is Moose Malloy, a big man recently released from prison and looking for his sweetheart, Velma.  He runs into Marlowe and, after Moose kills a man and disappears, Marlowe starts hunting Velma himself...

It was made into three movies, including the Robert Mitchum version which is my favorite Chandler-based flick.  Yes, I know that's blasphemy.  I don't care.  

2/6/1939 The Big Sleep awakens

February 6, 1939.  Today Alfred A Knopf published The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler's first novel.  It was cannibalized, in the author's word, from several short stories he had written for Black Mask Magazine.  The book starred Philip Marlowe, the quintessential tough, cynical private eye in all his wise-cracking glory.  The plot doesn't bear too much looking into (Chandler admitted he couldn't remember who killed one of the characters) but the language and characters made the book a classic.  It was filmed twice, once with Bogart and once with (a regrettably too-old) Mitchum.