The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Non-fiction 1909-1959 Book

"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.Read More