- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (6 Dec 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140279741
- ISBN-13: 978-0140279740
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
120,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #85 in Books > Fiction > Poetry & Drama > Essays, Journals & Letters > 20th Century
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
"I don't know why the hell I write so many letters", Raymond Chandler once wrote, in a letter. "I guess my mind is just too active for its own good!" It was also, as Tom Hiney points out in this new selection from Chandler's correspondence, a result of his peripatetic existence, his intense reclusivity, and his insomniac efforts to keep the night at bay. Writing and dictating long into the early hours, Chandler crafted his letters with a natural ease and an acute eye for people and places around him. His obervations on Hollywood and southern Californian life are perhaps unsurpassed by anyone, and his comments on the craft of writing and on fiction generally offer a fascinating insight into his own unique and innovative style. This anthology also features the best of Chandler's journalism and poetry, some of it never published before, including a lost interview, held in a Naples hotel in 1947, with the American gangster Lucky Luciano, and Chandler's classic and blistering account of attending the 1948 Oscar ceremonies. "The Chandler Papers" is both an ideal companion to Chandler's work and an intriguing account of the man himself. These are the definitive chronicles of a famous writer and a uniquely fascinating man: Hiney's biographical commentary through the course of the papers illuminates them against the times, places and twists of the strange life of Raymond Chandler.
About the Author
Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and educated at Dulwich College in England. He was described by Evelyn Waugh as 'the best writer in America'. Tom Hiney was born in Birmingham in 1970. His book, RAYMOND CHANDLER: A BIOGRAPHY, was published in 1997.
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First Sentence
Chandler's papers start with his first creative output - poems and essays - written in London shortly before the outbreak of World War I. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Chandler's papers start with his first creative output - poems and essays - written in London shortly before the outbreak of World War I. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Most of the correspondence in this volume appeared in MacShane's 1981 "Selected Letters of...", but there are some nice additions, as well as Hiney's valuable commentary that accompanies the letters and puts them in context. The journalistic piece on the Academy Awards is good and shows Chandler's ambivalence about Hollywood, but the Lucky Luciano "interview" disappoints. All in all a good but not essential companion to the MacShane book.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
raymond Chandler was a fascinating character...talented writer..alcoholic...loner..and, as would be expected..the letters he wrote during his chronic insomnia periods reveal much more about the personal predilcitions and attitudes of this solitary writer....
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Repeat material
18 July 2001
Format:Hardcover
I was surprised that so much material from a previous collection ('Selected letters of Raymond Chandler', ed. McShane, 1981)is repeated in this book. Maybe I didn't do my homework, but I don't recall this fact being mentioned in promotions or reviews. When you're paying (as I did) [price] for a book, it's disappointing to keep coming across previously published letters. Chandler's writing is still great, but I'm sure he'd have something to say about this practice.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
So good it'll make a bishop kick in a stained glass window
28 Jun 2001
Format:Hardcover
What a fun collection this is! Another book of letters by another famous author I read recently was embarrassingly boring--it never should have been printed. But Chandler's style and pithy observations make this collection a treat. Though a loner and a lush, he maintained cordial relations with his colleagues, and his comments on the passing scene are keen. From acerbic observations on life in southern California, to wry descriptions of his cat's habits, to sometimes generous and sometimes acerbic appraisals of agents, publishers, and fellow writers, his prose is absolutely sparkling.
His coverage of Oscars night in the mid-Forties for The Atlantic magazine is a masterpiece of scorn for the glitterati. Around the same time he accurately dismisses the new medium of television's supposed threat to the book industry. People who tune in to watch "fourth-rate club fighters rub noses on the ropes are not losing any time from book reading." Just as frequently, Chandler comes across as thoughtful and a good friend--not at all Marlowe-ish, though you get the feeling he could be a tough guy if need be. If you read only one book of collected letters of a famous author this year, etc.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Poet Laureate of the Loner
24 May 2001
Format:Hardcover
Chandler had probably never seen most of the people with whom he corresponded in his letters, but his opinions on everything from the plight of the writer in Hollywood to the merits of housecats are not only witty and memorable, but also indicate an extremely thoughtful man and first-rate analytical mind. The only problem I had with Hiney's editing is that a bit more could have been explained--although some of the context of each letter is provided, additional information would have been helpful. I believe I would have appreciated Chandler's observations even more had this been the case.
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