Editing Raymond Chandler (section)

===As a writer===
In straitened financial circumstances during the [[Great Depression]], Chandler turned to his latent writing talent to earn a living, teaching himself to write [[Pulp magazine|pulp fiction]] by analyzing and imitating a novelette by [[Erle Stanley Gardner]]. Chandler's first professional work, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in ''Black Mask'' magazine in 1933. According to genre historian Herbert Ruhm, "Chandler, who worked slowly and painstakingly, revising again and again, had taken five months to write the story.  Erle Stanley Gardner could turn out a pulp story in three or four days—and turned out an estimated one thousand."<ref>Herbert Ruhm, "Introduction", in Herbert Ruhm (1977), ed., ''The Hard-boiled Detective:  Stories from "Black Mask" Magazine, 1920–1951'', New York:  Vintage, p. xvii.</ref>

His first novel, ''[[The Big Sleep]]'', was published in 1939, featuring the detective Philip Marlowe, speaking in the first person.  In 1950, Chandler described in a letter to his English publisher, Hamish Hamilton, why he began reading pulp magazines and later wrote for them:

<blockquote>Wandering up and down the Pacific Coast in an automobile I began to read pulp magazines, because they were cheap enough to throw away and because I never had at any time any taste for the kind of thing which is known as women's magazines. This was in the great days of the ''Black Mask'' (if I may call them great days) and it struck me that some of the writing was pretty forceful and honest, even though it had its crude aspect. I decided that this might be a good way to try to learn to write fiction and get paid a small amount of money at the same time.  I spent five months over an 18,000 word novelette and sold it for $180. After that I never looked back, although I had a good many uneasy periods looking forward.{{sfn|Chandler|1969|p=vii}}</blockquote>

His second Marlowe novel, ''[[Farewell, My Lovely]]'' (1940), became the basis for three movie versions adapted by other screenwriters, including the 1944 film ''[[Murder My Sweet]]'', which marked the screen debut of the Marlowe character, played by [[Dick Powell]] (whose depiction of Marlowe was applauded by Chandler). Literary success and film adaptations led to a demand for Chandler himself as a screenwriter. He and [[Billy Wilder]] co-wrote ''[[Double Indemnity]]'' (1944), based on [[James M. Cain]]'s [[Double Indemnity (novel)|novel of the same title]]. The [[film noir|noir]] screenplay was nominated for an [[Academy Award]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1945|title=The 17th Academy Awards {{!}} 1945|website=www.oscars.org|date=October 4, 2014 |language=en|access-date=2023-08-26}}</ref> Said Wilder, "I would just guide the structure and I would also do a lot of the dialogue, and he (Chandler) would then comprehend and start constructing too." Wilder acknowledged that the dialogue which makes the film so memorable was largely Chandler's.

Chandler's only produced original screenplay was ''[[The Blue Dahlia]]'' (1946). He had not written a [[denouement]] for the script and, according to producer [[John Houseman]], Chandler concluded he could finish the script only if drunk, with the assistance of round-the-clock secretaries and drivers, which Houseman agreed to. The script gained Chandler's second Academy Award nomination for screenplay.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1947|title=The 19th Academy Awards {{!}} 1947|website=www.oscars.org|date=October 4, 2014 |language=en|access-date=2023-08-26}}</ref>

Chandler collaborated on the screenplay of [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[Strangers on a Train (film)|Strangers on a Train]]'' (1951), an ironic murder story based on [[Patricia Highsmith]]'s [[Strangers on a Train (novel)|novel]], which he thought implausible. Chandler clashed with Hitchcock and they stopped talking after Hitchcock heard Chandler had referred to him as "that fat bastard".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gustini |first=Ray |date=2012-01-10 |title=Don't Waste Raymond Chandler's Time; Roald Dahl Achieves Stamp Immortality |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2012/01/dont-waste-raymond-chandlers-time-roald-dahl-achieves-stamp-immortality/333309/ |access-date=2023-08-08 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |quote=There's a famous, possibly apocryphal story of Hitchcock pulling up outside Chandler's house in a limousine and The Big Sleep author saying none-too-softly, "Look at that fat bastard trying to get out of his car!"}}</ref> Hitchcock made a show of throwing Chandler's two draft screenplays into the studio trash can while holding his nose, but Chandler retained the lead screenwriting credit along with Czenzi Ormonde.

In 1946, the Chandlers moved to [[La Jolla]], an affluent coastal neighborhood of San Diego, California, where Chandler wrote two more Philip Marlowe novels, ''[[The Long Goodbye (novel)|The Long Goodbye]]'' and his last completed work, ''Playback''. The latter was derived from an unproduced courtroom drama screenplay he had written for [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]].

Four chapters of a novel, unfinished at his death, were transformed into a final Philip Marlowe novel, ''[[Poodle Springs]]'', by the mystery writer and Chandler admirer [[Robert B. Parker]], in 1989. Parker shares the authorship with Chandler. Parker subsequently wrote a sequel to ''The Big Sleep'' entitled ''[[Perchance to Dream (novel)|Perchance to Dream]]'', which was salted with quotes from the original novel. Chandler's final Marlowe short story, circa 1957, was entitled "The Pencil". It later provided the basis of an episode of the HBO miniseries (1983–86), ''[[Philip Marlowe, Private Eye]]'', starring [[Powers Boothe]] as Marlowe.

In 2014, "The Princess and the Pedlar" (1917), a previously unknown comic operetta, with libretto by Chandler and music by Julian Pascal, was discovered<ref>
{{Citation
 | last = Weinman
 | first = Sarah
 | title = Unpublished Raymond Chandler Work Discovered in Library of Congress
 | newspaper = The Guardian
 | location = London
 | date = December 2, 2014
|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/02/raymond-chandler-libretto-library-congress
 }}</ref> among the uncatalogued holdings of the [[Library of Congress]]. The work was never published or produced. It has been dismissed by the Raymond Chandler estate as "no more than… a curiosity."<ref>{{cite web
 | last = Cooper
 | first = Kim
 | title = Goblin Wine
 |url=http://www.goblinwine.com/p/story.html
 | access-date = December 30, 2014 }}</ref> A small team under the direction of the actor and director [[Paul Sand]] is seeking permission to produce the operetta in Los Angeles.