Authors > Raymond Chandler

(1888-1959) U.S. mystery writer. Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago, Illinois, but spent most of his youth in England. He worked as a freelance journalist for the Westminster Gazette and The Spectator. During World War I, he served in France with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, transferring later to the R.A.F.

At the age of forty-five, Chandler turned to a writing career, publishing his first story, Blackmailers Don't Shoot in the pulp fiction magazine Black Mask.

His most popular hero was Philip Marlowe, the good guy detective in stories full of mean and corrupt villains, back-stabbing friends and dangerous women. Marlowe was introduced in Chandler's first novel, The Big Sleep, which later appeared on the big screen.

Chandler's style was more thoughtful than the more prolific pulp writers, as he never sold more than five stories a year, and published only seven novels in his lifetime. Chandler also had a successful screenwriting career. He was nominated for two Academy awards for Double Indemnity (1944) and The Blue Dahlia (1946).