“Under the thinning fog the surf curled and creamed, almost without sound, like a thought trying to form inself on the edge of consciousness.”
RAYMOND CHANDLER, The Big Sleep
Photo: “Fog, Sunset, Ocean — California” by Mike Behnken, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
“Under the thinning fog the surf curled and creamed, almost without sound, like a thought trying to form inself on the edge of consciousness.” RAYMOND CHANDLER, The Big Sleep
Photo: “Fog, Sunset, Ocean — California” by Mike Behnken, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
How could I forget to post happy birthday wishes to one of my favorite authors, Raymond Chandler? Well, his birthday came and went yesterday, July 23rd, and I remembered that I forgot while driving today on the mean streets of L.A. that Chandler made famous. Chandler was born in my hometown of Chicago in 1888 and spent his final years in La Jolla, California, just north of San Diego. He passed away in 1959.
What I find most encouraging about Chandler’s career is that he was 51 years old when his first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. Chandler had spent many years as an executive in the oil business and, when he lost his job in the early 1930s (during the Depression, no less), decided to reinvent himself as a pulp fiction writer.
Chandler figured out the formula to the pulp detective stories and submitted his own twist on the genre to the popular magazines of the day — most notably Black Mask, where his first published work appeared in 1933. Of this experience, he later wrote: “I spent five months on an 18,000 word novelette and sold it for $180. After that I never looked back, although I had a good many uneasy periods looking forward.”
During the 1940s, Chandler worked for a brief period as a Hollywood screenwriter — his most notable contribution as cowriter with Billy Wilder on the film noir masterwork Double Indemnity (1944), which earned the two men Academy Award nominations.
I admire Chandler’s genius for turning something commonplace (pulp fiction) into something extraordinary — bringing style, originality, and unforgettable prose to crime sagas and turning them into high art.
Best wishes on your 124th birthday, Ray!
Illustration by Scott Laumann. Visit Scott’s website here. I love Scott’s illustration because it sets Chandler in his free-ranging Southern California milieu, yet the formally attired writer remains detached, distanced — as if tilting his head to get a perspective on the bleached out, gritty place he called home for most of his life.
Silver Birch Press 