The World of Raymond Chandler In His Own Words

by Chandler, Raymond; Day, Barry

• ISBN13: 9780804170482
• ISBN10: 0804170487
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-11-10
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

The World of Raymond Chandler shows how Chandler precariously balanced the values of a classical English education against those of a fast-evolving America during the years before the Great War; how he adopted Los Angeles as his home after WWI, with Hollywood in turn adopting him (and adapting his works); how his detective hero and alter ego Philip Marlowe evolved over the years; and, above all, what it is to be a writer, and in particular one writing in the “other language” of hardboiled fiction.
 
Acclaimed biographer and historian Barry Day deftly interweaves images and text, using quotations from Chandler’s novels, short stories, letters, and interviews, to craft a unique portrait of the mystery writer’s life and times.

Author Biography

Barry Day was born in England and received his M.A. from Balliol College, Oxford. Day has written about Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde, Johnny Mercer, P. G. Wodehouse, and Rodgers and Hart. He has written and produced plays and musical revues showcasing the work of Noël Coward, the Lunts, Oscar Wilde, and others. Day is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Trustee of the Noël Coward Foundation and was awarded by Queen Elizabeth the Order of the British Empire for services to British culture in the U.S. He lives in New York, London, and Palm Beach.