Raymond Chandler

Today is Raymond Chandler's birthday. Bet you all thought he was dead didn't you? Actually he is, but if he were alive he'd be 120 years old today. I most sincerely hope that none of you are saying, Who is Raymond Chandler?

Chandler was the creator of Philip Marlowe and, along with Dashiell Hammett, responsible for crafting our idea of the hard-boiled private detective. His novels include The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. If you haven't read any of his work, I'd recommend it. How can you resist lines like these:

It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window. (Farewell, My Lovely)

A dead man is the best fall guy in the world. He never talks back. (The Long Goodbye)

The plants filled the place, a forest of them, with nasty meaty leaves and stalks like the newly washed fingers of dead men. (The Big Sleep)

My favorite quote from Chandler is not from one of his novels but from an essay he wrote called The Simple Art of Murder:

But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor -- by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.

Words to live by folks, or at least write a book by. If you have nothing better to do today, read Raymond Chandler.

Update: She's killing me. Jill I mean. She said, Who is Raymond Chandler? Then she said well she had heard of him and didn't he write the Perry Mason books. Then she thought he wrote about Dashiell Hammett. In case anyone else is confused, no, he did not write the Perry Mason books. That was Erle Stanley Gardner. And he didn't create Dashiell Hammett either. Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon and created Sam Spade. The things I have to live with. I was apprehensive but I forced myself to ask her if she'd heard of Agatha Christie. Fortunately she said yes.

If you're interested in private detective mysteries but think Chandler or Hammett is to out of date for you, I can make some suggestions. Actually if you are interested in any type of mystery I can make suggestions. In fact I think I'll write a post about this later. Aren't you all excited?

Robin, the lonely blog mistress