Raymond Chandler Popular Books

Raymond Chandler Biography & Facts

Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe, like Hammett's Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective". Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart, whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe. The Big Sleep placed second on the Crime Writers Association poll of the 100 best crime novels; Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady in the Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1953) also made the list. The latter novel was praised in an anthology of American crime stories as "arguably the first book since Hammett's The Glass Key, published more than twenty years earlier, to qualify as a serious and significant mainstream novel that just happened to possess elements of mystery". Chandler was also a perceptive critic of detective fiction; his "The Simple Art of Murder" is the canonical essay in the field. In it he wrote: "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective 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—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."Parker wrote that, with Marlowe, "Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious—an innocent who knows better, a Romantic who is tough enough to sustain Romanticism in a world that has seen the eternal footman hold its coat and snicker. Living at the end of the Far West, where the American dream ran out of room, no hero has ever been more congruent with his landscape. Chandler had the right hero in the right place, and engaged him in the consideration of good and evil at precisely the time when our central certainty of good no longer held." Biography Early life Chandler was born in 1888 in Chicago, the son of Florence Dart (Thornton) and Maurice Benjamin Chandler. He spent his early years in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, living with his mother and father near his cousins and his aunt (his mother's sister) and uncle. Chandler's father, an alcoholic civil engineer who worked for the railway, abandoned the family. To obtain the best possible education for Ray, his mother, originally from Ireland, moved them to the area of Upper Norwood in what is now the London Borough of Croydon, England in 1900. Another uncle, a successful lawyer in Waterford, Ireland, reluctantly supported them while they lived with Chandler's maternal grandmother. Raymond was a first cousin to the actor Max Adrian, a founding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; Max's mother Mabel was a sister of Florence Thornton. Chandler was classically educated at Dulwich College, London (a public school whose alumni include the authors P. G. Wodehouse and C. S. Forester). He spent some of his childhood summers in Waterford with his mother's family. He did not go to university, instead spending time in Paris and Munich improving his foreign language skills. In 1907, he was naturalized as a British subject in order to take the civil service examination, which he passed. He then took an Admiralty job, lasting just over a year. His first poem was published during that time. Chandler disliked the servility of the civil service and resigned, to the consternation of his family, became a reporter for the Daily Express and also wrote for The Westminster Gazette. He was unsuccessful as a journalist, but he published reviews and continued writing romantic poetry. An encounter with the slightly older Richard Barham Middleton is said to have influenced him into postponing his career as writer. "I met ... also a young, bearded, and sad-eyed man called Richard Middleton. ... Shortly afterwards he committed suicide in Antwerp, a suicide of despair, I should say. The incident made a great impression on me, because Middleton struck me as having far more talent than I was ever likely to possess; and if he couldn't make a go of it, it wasn't very likely that I could." Accounting for that time he said, "Of course in those days as now there were ... clever young men who made a decent living as freelances for the numerous literary weeklies", but "I was distinctly not a clever young man. Nor was I at all a happy young man."In 1912, he borrowed money from his Waterford uncle, who expected it to be repaid with interest, and returned to America, visiting his aunt and uncle before settling in San Francisco for a time, where he took a correspondence course in bookkeeping, finishing ahead of schedule. His mother joined him there in late 1912. Encouraged by Chandler's attorney/oilman friend Warren Lloyd, they moved to Los Angeles in 1913, where he strung tennis rackets, picked fruit and endured a time of scrimping and saving. He found steady employment with the Los Angeles Creamery. In 1917, he traveled to Victoria, where in August he enlisted in the 50th Reinforcement Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force. He saw combat in the trenches in France with the 7th Battalion C.E.F. (British Columbia Regiment). He was twice hospitalized with Spanish flu during the pandemic and was undergoing flight training in the fledgling Royal Air Force (RAF) when the war ended.After the armistice, he returned to Los Angeles by way of Vancouver, and soon began a love affair with Pearl Eugenie ("Cissy") Pascal, a married woman 18 years his senior and the stepmother of Gordon Pascal, with whom Chandler had enlisted. Cissy amicably divorced her husband, Julian, in 1920, but Chandler's mother disapproved of the relationship and refused to sanction the marriage. For the next four years Chandler supported both his mother and Cissy. After the death of Florence Chandler on September 26, 1923, he was free to marry Cissy. They were married on February 6, 1924. Having begun in 1922 as a bookkeeper and auditor, Chandler was by 1931 a highly paid vice president of the Dabney O.... Discover the Raymond Chandler popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Raymond Chandler books.

Best Seller Raymond Chandler Books of 2024

  • What We Talk About When We Talk About Love synopsis, comments

    What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

    Raymond Carver

    The most celebrated story collection from “one of the true American masters” (The New York Review of Books)a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one’s...

  • The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries synopsis, comments

    The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries

    Otto Penzler

    The most complete collection of Yuletide whodunits ever assembled The Edgar Awardwinning editor collects sixty of his alltime favorite holiday crime storiesfrom Arthur Conan Doyle...

  • Diamond and the Eye synopsis, comments

    Diamond and the Eye

    Peter Lovesey

    A Bath antiques dealer has disappeared, and detective Peter Diamond has been saddled with the "help" of a hardboiled Philip Marlowe wannabe private investigator in cracking the cas...

  • Brothers Keepers synopsis, comments

    Brothers Keepers

    Donald E. Westlake

    What will a group of monks do when their centuryold monastery in New York City is threatened with demolition to make room for a new highrise? What will a group of monks do when the...

  • Raymond Chandler in Hollywood synopsis, comments

    Raymond Chandler in Hollywood

    Al Clark

    Four years after writing his first novel, The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler found himself sitting in an office at Paramount Studios earning a weekly salary that amounted to almost ha...

  • The High Window synopsis, comments

    The High Window

    Raymond Chandler

    The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe Featuring the iconic character that ...

  • The Simple Art of Murder synopsis, comments

    The Simple Art of Murder

    Raymond Chandler

    The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe  Featuring the iconic character ...

  • The Count of 9 synopsis, comments

    The Count of 9

    Erle Stanley Gardner

    From the worldfamous creator of "Perry Mason," Erle Stanley Gardner comes another baffling case for the Cool & Lam detective agency.HBO series Perry Mason airs June 2020 starri...

  • Shroud for a Nightingale synopsis, comments

    Shroud for a Nightingale

    P. D. James

    Hailed as “mystery at its best” by The New York Times, Shroud for a Nightingale is the fourth book in bestselling author P.D. James’s Adam Dalgliesh mystery series.The young women ...

  • Trouble Is My Business synopsis, comments

    Trouble Is My Business

    Raymond Chandler

    The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe Featuring the iconic character that ...

  • The Lady in the Lake synopsis, comments

    The Lady in the Lake

    Raymond Chandler

    The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe Featuring the iconic character that ...

  • The Thin Man synopsis, comments

    The Thin Man

    Dashiell Hammett

    Nick Charles seems to find trouble wherever he goes. He thinks his sleuthing days are behind him when Julia Wolf, a former acquaintance, turns up dead. Nickthanks to some persuasio...

  • The Heptameron synopsis, comments

    The Heptameron

    Marguerite de Navarre

    In the early 1500s five men and five women find themselves trapped by floods and compelled to take refuge in an abbey high in the Pyrenees. When told they must wait days for a brid...

  • The Big Sleep synopsis, comments

    The Big Sleep

    Raymond Chandler

    The renowned novel from the crime fiction master, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe. Featuring the iconic character that inspired the...

  • Turn on the Heat synopsis, comments

    Turn on the Heat

    Erle Stanley Gardner

    A CLASSIC COOL AND LAM NOVEL FROM THE CREATOR OF PERRY MASON, ERLE STANLEY GARDNERHBO series Perry Mason airs June 2020 starring Matthew Rhys in the titular role.Erle Sta...

  • The Last Stand synopsis, comments

    The Last Stand

    Mickey Spillane

    ON MICKEY SPILLANE'S 100TH BIRTHDAY A BRANDNEW NOVEL FROM THE MASTERWhen legendary mystery writer Mickey Spillane died in 2006, he left behind the manuscript of one last novel he'...

  • Only to Sleep synopsis, comments

    Only to Sleep

    Lawrence Osborne

    Lawrence Osborne brings one of literature’s most enduring detectives back to lifeas Private Investigator Philip Marlowe returns for one last adventure. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST B...

  • The Double Life Is Twice as Good synopsis, comments

    The Double Life Is Twice as Good

    Jonathan Ames

    Wildly original novelist, essayist, and performance artist Jonathan Ames delivers a hilarious, risqué, and loveable selection of articles, essays, and fiction, including several pr...

  • Killing Town synopsis, comments

    Killing Town

    Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins

    THE LOST FIRST MIKE HAMMER THRILLER! The lost book that begins the iconic Mike Hammer series by Mickey Spillane, finally completed by Max Allan Collins, author of Road to Perdition...

  • Red Cavalry and Other Stories synopsis, comments

    Red Cavalry and Other Stories

    Isaac Babel, Efraim Sicher & David McDuff

    Throughout his life Isaac Babel was torn by opposing forces, by the desire both to remain faithful to his Jewish roots and yet to be free of them. This duality of vision infuses hi...

  • Pomona Queen synopsis, comments

    Pomona Queen

    Kem Nunn

    Lost in a southern California barrio, Earl Dean has a hard time believing there is one living soul in this foulsmelling night who wants to be found by a salesman hawking vacuum cle...

  • For the Love of Books synopsis, comments

    For the Love of Books

    Graham Tarrant

    A lighthearted book about books and the people who write them for all lovers of literature. Do you know: Which famous author died of caffeine poisoning? Why Alice’s Adventures in ...

  • The Little Sister synopsis, comments

    The Little Sister

    Raymond Chandler

    The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe Featuring the iconic character that ...

  • The Hotel Neversink synopsis, comments

    The Hotel Neversink

    Adam O'Fallon Price

    A 2020 Edgar Award Winner!"A gripping, atmospheric, heartbreaking, almostghost story. Not since Stephen King's Overlook has a hotel hiding a secret been brought to such vivid life....

  • Clouds of Witness synopsis, comments

    Clouds of Witness

    Dorothy L. Sayers

    The second book in Dorothy L Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey series introduced by crime novelist Ruth Dudley Edwards a mustread for fans of Agatha Christie's Poirot and Margery Allingham...

  • Playback synopsis, comments

    Playback

    Raymond Chandler

    The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe Featuring the iconic character that ...

  • Farewell, My Lovely synopsis, comments

    Farewell, My Lovely

    Raymond Chandler

    The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe Featuring the iconic character that ...

  • Cover Her Face synopsis, comments

    Cover Her Face

    P. D. James

    The first in the series of scintillating mysteries to feature cunning Scotland Yard detective, Adam Dalgliesh from P.D. James, the bestselling author hailed by People magazine as “...

  • So Many Doors synopsis, comments

    So Many Doors

    Oakley Hall

    The legendary lost crime novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Oakley Hall, instructor of Ann Rice, Amy Tan, Richard Ford, and Michael Chabon, who calls SO MANY DOORS "Beautiful, powe...

  • Cathedral synopsis, comments

    Cathedral

    Raymond Carver

    PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST Twelve short stories that mark a turning point in the work of “one of the true American masters" (The New York Review of Books).“A writer of astonishing co...

  • Heart of Darkness synopsis, comments

    Heart of Darkness

    Joseph Conrad, Owen Knowles & Robert Hampson

    A haunting Modernist masterpiece and the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's Oscarwinning film Apocalypse Now, Heart of Darkness explores the limits of human experience and the ...

  • Chance synopsis, comments

    Chance

    Kem Nunn

    From Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Kem Nunn and “principal heir to the tradition of Raymond Chandler and Nathanael West” (The Washington Post)an intense psychological suspens...

  • Skim Deep synopsis, comments

    Skim Deep

    Max Allan Collins

    The first new Nolan novel in 33 years from one of the masters of the genre, Max Allan Collins, awardwinning author of Road to Perdition.The onetime worldclass thief Nolan now happ...

  • The Raymond Chandler Papers synopsis, comments

    The Raymond Chandler Papers

    Raymond Chandler

    Selected letters and nonfiction of one of America’s most beloved writers “reveals the occasionally softer side of the man behind the hardboiled mysteries” (Library Journal).  ...

  • Devil in a Blue Dress synopsis, comments

    Devil in a Blue Dress

    Walter Mosley

    Devil in a Blue Dress, a defining novel in Walter Mosley’s bestselling Easy Rawlins mystery series, was adapted into a TriStar Pictures film starring Denzel Washington as Easy Rawl...

  • The World of Raymond Chandler synopsis, comments

    The World of Raymond Chandler

    Raymond Chandler

     Raymond Chandler never wrote a memoir or autobiography. The closest he came to writing either was inand aroundhis novels, shorts stories, and letters. There have been books t...

  • Time to Pay synopsis, comments

    Time to Pay

    Lyndon Stacey

    Revenge has no limits...Damien Daniels has been murdered; shot through the chest by an unseen marksman. It looks like a professional job but there are no clues as to who pulled the...

  • The Annotated Big Sleep synopsis, comments

    The Annotated Big Sleep

    Raymond Chandler, Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson & Anthony Rizzuto

    The first fully annotated edition of Raymond Chandler’s 1939 classic The Big Sleep features hundreds of illuminating notes and images alongside the full text of the novel...

  • Raymond Chandler synopsis, comments

    Raymond Chandler

    Fredric Jameson

    The master of literary theory takes on the master of the detective novelRaymond Chandler, a dazzling stylist and portrayer of American life, holds a unique place in literary histor...

  • The Long Embrace synopsis, comments

    The Long Embrace

    Judith Freeman

    Raymond Chandler was among the most original and enduring crime novelists of the twentieth century. Yet much of his prewriting life, including his unconventional marriage, has rema...

  • A Bloody Business synopsis, comments

    A Bloody Business

    Dylan Struzan & Drew Struzan

    ON THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF PROHIBITION, LEARN WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.In 1919, the National Prohibition Act was passed, making it illegal across America to produce, distribute, or se...