Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Dashiell Hammett as the creators of the noir genre of detective novels. His detective, Philip Marlowe, set the standards for the hard-boiled crime fiction that was to come.

Born in Chicago in 1888, Chandler grew up in England. He attended Dulwich College and then freelanced for British newspapers. He fought in France during World War I, afterward moving to California and directing oil companies. The Depression ended his business career and he began writing fiction in 1933. His novel, The Big Sleep, was made into a movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. It was one of the movies that helped define the film noir genre.

He then wrote seven novels and one collection of stories before dying in California in 1959.

BIBLIOGRAPHY