The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler

Drawn from those journals, The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler offers an intimate view of the writer at work, revealing early ideas, descriptions, and anecdotes that would later be used in The Long Goodbye, The Blue Dahlia, and other classics. Filled with both public and private writings, The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler includes “Marlowesque” particulars such as pickpocket lingo, San Quentin jailhouse slang, a “Note on the Tommygun,” and musings on “Craps.” Here, too, are surprising, lesser known essays on Hollywood, the mystery story, British and American writing, and a wicked parody of Hemingway. This sampler—by turns whimsical, provocative, irreverent, and fascinating—also contains a list of possible story titles; “Chandlerisms;” and his short work “English Summer: A Gothic Romance,” which the writer viewed as a turning point in his career.