Raymond Chandler died in 1959, leaving the fans of his detective anti-hero Phillip Marlowe wanting more. In the ensuing years, two excellent writers, Robert Parker and John Banville, have attempted to satisfy those desires. Parker took up Chandler’s unfinished novel and finished it as Poodle Springs in 1989. Then he wrote a second Marlowe novel, • Read More »
Archives: Raymond Chandler
Who killed Julia Wallace? The classic locked-door mystery
August 2, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, writers.When Wiliam Herbert Wallace returned to his Liverpool home from work one January night in 1931, he found his wife Julia dead on the floor of the parlor, her head caved in by a heavy object and her blood spread across the room. Deanna Cioppa, a writer and editor and fan of true-crime stories, has all • Read More »
Female writers, #MeToo, and the love for Raymond Chandler
July 17, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism.
What’s a female crime-writing author, who owes so much to Raymond Chandler and who loves him dearly, to do in this age of #MeToo? Megan Abbott (Give Me Your Hand) has some interesting observation in a delightful and insightful essay on Salon.com. Abbott is unabashed in her love for Raymond Chandler and the noir world • Read More »
The first real-life private eye; Neil Sheehan; more crimes against English; newsletter, Jan. 26, 2018
January 29, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: newsletter.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email (4,302) list on Friday, January 26, 2018. Hi, Unseasonably warm weather in East Tennessee last weekend allowed us to check on the beehives, and I am happy to report that both of my hives have bees! This is good news. The biggest challenge a beekeeper has • Read More »
The ‘private eye’ in literature begins with the real-life character of Eugene Francois Vidocq
January 25, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: fiction, history, journalism, Private eye, writing.
The place to look for the origins of the literary private eye is in 19th century France with the character of Eugene Francois Vidocq.
Readers track down more crimes against English; Ross Macdonald; newsletter, Jan. 19, 2018
January 22, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: newsletter.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (4,379) on Friday, Jan. 19, 2018. Hi, Winter has settled in in a big way in my part of the world. Plenty of time for indoor activities, the most important of which is reading. But that’s not the only one. Some writing and some painting • Read More »
Ross Macdonald takes hard-boiled fiction to new levels of style and plot
January 18, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: fiction, journalism, Private eye, writers, writing.
Just when the reading world thought that the hard-boiled detective novel had reached its zenith with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, along comes Ross Macdonald. The similarities among the lives of Hammett, Chandler, and Macdonald (whose real name was Kenneth Millar) are striking and significant: All had difficult and disruptive childhoods. Each, for a time, • Read More »
Raymond Chandler and the development of the ‘private eye’; newsletter, Jan. 12, 2018
January 15, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalists, newsletter, watercolor.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (4,500) on Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Special note: If you have unsubscribed to this list previously, I apologize for this email. I had some problems with the list over the past couple of weeks — due mainly to my incompetence — and some unsubscribers may have • Read More »
Raymond Chandler: a troubled author who raised the level of hard-boiled detective fiction
January 10, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: fiction, journalism, Private eye.
Raymond Chandler brought a level of emotional complexity to his characters that had never been seen before in hard-boiled detective fiction.
G is for Grafton: Mystery writer Sue Grafton succumbs to cancer at age 77
January 2, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, Private eye, writers, writing.
Sue Grafton’s private eye, Kinsey Millhone, has taken her place beside Hammett’s Sam Spade, Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe, and Macdonald’s Lew Archer.
More on the ‘private eye’ and Dashiell Hammett; lots of reader response this week
January 1, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: newsletter, Private eye.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (4,431) on Friday, Dec. 29, 2017. Hi, A lot of you readers took the time to respond to various parts of the newsletter last week, and I have included some of those responses here. Thanks to you all. Your responses make great reading, and I • Read More »
The ‘private eye,’ in the beginning: Dashiell Hammett
December 27, 2017 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, Private eye, writers, writing.
Dashiell Hammett knew what a private detective should be. He knew because he had been one, and he had been taught by the very best. Born in Maryland in 1894, Hammett had failed at most everything he tried in the first two decades of his life. Intelligent, tall, and handsome, he did not finish school, • Read More »
Trouble is their business: the ‘private eye’ and the writers who created them
December 21, 2017 | By Jim Stovall | 2 Comments | Filed in: Private eye, writers, writing.
The opening scene of Raymond Chandler’s story Trouble is My Business tells you a lot in a very few words about Chandler’s “private eye,” Phillip Marlowe. Marlow is talking to a woman who runs a detective agency, a big one with several agents. But none of her people is suitable for the job she has. • Read More »