- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday July 22 2008 15.39 BST
1888-1959
"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid."
Birthplace
Chicago, US
Education
Dulwich College, London; also studied in France and Germany.
Other jobs
Served in the Canadian Army in the first world war, the only survivor in his outfit of an artillery barrage, and in the RAF; worked as a reporter and a rancher and was an oil executive until a combination of drink and the Depression led to the sack and he turned to writing as a way of making money.
Did you know?
His hero's name changed many times as Chandler wrote; it was only after his death, when the stories were collected, that all his wise-cracking private eyes were named Philip Marlowe.
Critical verdict
His critical reputation has always been high: WH Auden, among others, countered charges of pulp, insisting that the books were "not escape literature, but works of art" - evocations of "the Great Wrong Place".
Recommended works
The Long Goodbye (1953) is Chandler's most complex novel, and the one in which the hard-boiled Marlowe is revealed to have a heart.
Influences
Dashiell Hammett, Frederick Nebel
Now read on
Norman Mailer's Tough Guys Don't Dance; Mickey Spillane, Leigh Brackett, Ed Lacy
Adaptations
Chandler produced many original screenplays (working with, among others, Alfred Hitchcock); his novel The Big Sleep was adapted for the screen by William Faulkner, who uncharacteristically sugared the ending.
Recommended biography
Tom Hiney's Raymond Chandler: A Biography
Criticism
Critical Responses to Raymond Chandler (1995) ed. JK Van Dover
Useful links and work online
Work online
· 'The Unknown Love': 1908 poem
· 'The Genteel Artist': Chandler on art (1911)
Background
· Gumshoe's guide: a glossary of Chandler slang
· Web resources on Raymond Chandler
