Claudia Arevalo-Lowe Jan. 31, 1998

RAYMOND (THORTON) CHANDLER

Chandler was born on July 23, 1888 in Chicago, and from 1896 to 1912, he lived in England with his mother. Although he was a U.S. citizen and a resident of California, when WWI began in 1914, he served in the Canadian Army and then in the Royal Corps, later known as the Royal Air Force. Chandler returned to California and became a petroleum company executive until the 1930s depression, when he turned to writing for a living. His first published short story appeared in the pulp magazine "Black Mask" in 1933.

I read Raymond Chandler’s "Writers in Hollywood" and he gave me the impression of a very creative writer who is completely frustrated at the way artists are treated in Hollywood, as he feels it is a craft which has been degraded by big egos. I noticed also that he finds himself devastated artistically by having his talent exploited and somewhat killed and believes the he has no power over his own creations.

I found Chandler also bitter about writers who he perceived incapable of coming up with an idea and are in very much demand, as opposite to those who are truly talented, as he sees creativity and writing as a form of art been butchered. He includes as part of his writing a very strong social commentary related to the estate of affairs of those who are part of the industry. He depicts them as the ones who get the credit and the few talented writers are considered worthless. Even though he can see that there is good people in the business, his outlook on the bad out weights the good in the scale of his judgment. Chandler was pursuing perfection and recognition and even though he was not in agreement with the situation, he was willing to continue trying, and try he did.

As true as that might have been in the 1930s and 1940s, Chandler continued writing for the Motion Picture studies and produced the Philip Marlowe novel series which made it to the big screen more than once. Chandler was criticized on Marlowe’s moralistic and preachy character. Chandler also moved on to work for Alfred Hitchcok who directed one of Chandler’s pieces. I wonder if by the end of his life, March 26, 1959 in La Jolla, California, he realized that he was capable of "controlling" all the things which made him cringe.