Raymond Chandler Raymond Chandler and the Mystery and the Mystery

StoryStoryWilliam HarrisonWilliam Harrison

English 2132English 2132Georgia Perimeter CollegeGeorgia Perimeter College

7 November 20127 November 2012

““The Simple Art of The Simple Art of Murder”Murder”

British are BoringBritish are Boring

that it has been writtenby two

persons”

“There cannot be the

least doubt in the world

The Reigate MysteryArthur Conan Doyle

British are BoringBritish are Boring

The Reigate MysteryArthur Conan Doyle

“Sherlock Holmes after all is mostly an attitude and a“few dozen lines of unforgettable dialogue.”

Raymond ChandlerRaymond Chandler

Good specimens of the art are much rarer than good

serious novels.”

“Yet the detective story, even in its

most conventional form, is difficult to

write well.

“The Simple Art of Murder” 1950

“The cool-headed constructionist does not also come across with lively characters. . . .”

“The cool-headed constructionist does not also come across with lively characters, sharp dialogue. . .”

“The cool-headed constructionist does not also come across with lively characters, sharp dialogue, a sense of pace and an acute use of observed detail. . . .”

The grim logician has as much atmosphere as a drawing-board. . . .”

“The cool-headed constructionist does not also come across with lively characters, sharp dialogue, a sense of pace and an acute use of observed detail.

The grim logician has as much atmosphere as a drawing-board. The scientific sleuth has a nice new shiny laboratory, but I’m sorry I can’t remember the face.”

“The cool-headed constructionist does not also come across with lively characters, sharp dialogue, a sense of pace and an acute use of observed detail.

Precursors to the Precursors to the Pulps –Pulps –the “Penny Dreadful”the “Penny Dreadful”

Pulp ArtPulp Art

Phantom Phantom DetectivDetectiv

ee

Pulp ArtPulp Art

The Robert Lesser CollectionThe Robert Lesser Collection

The Robert Lesser CollectionThe Robert Lesser Collection

The Robert Lesser CollectionThe Robert Lesser Collection

The Robert Lesser CollectionThe Robert Lesser Collection

The Robert Lesser CollectionThe Robert Lesser Collection

“It seems to me detective

stories and by writers reward is small critical praise is not be

possible if talent.”

that production of on so large a scale, whose immediate and whose need of almost nil, would the job took any

“The Simple Art of Murder,” 1950

no worse than the average novel, but you never see the average novel. It doesn’t get published. The average—or only slightly above average—detectivestory

does.”

“The average detective story is probably

Dashiell HammettDashiell Hammett

Dashiell HammettDashiell Hammett

The Maltese Falcon

The HeroThe Hero“But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himselfmean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.

The detective in this kind of story mustbe such a man. He is the hero, he iseverything. He must be a

completeman and a common man and yet anunusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of

honor, by instinct, by inevitability,

without thought of it, and certainlywithout saying it. He must be the

bestman in his world and a good

enoughman for any world.”

Dashiell HammettDashiell Hammett

not be a work of genius,

“And he demonstrated that the detective storycan be important writing. The Maltese Falcon may or may

but an art which is capable of it is not ‘byHypothesis’ incapable of

anything.”

Dashiell HammettDashiell Hammett

not the only one who wrote or

tried to write realistic

“He was one of a group, the only one who achieved critical recognition, but

Mystery fiction.”

one individual is picked out to represent the

he is usually the

“All literary movements are like this; some

culmination of the

whole movement;

movement.”

Dashiell HammettDashiell Hammett

“I doubt that Hammett had any deliberate

artistic aims whatever; he was

trying to make a living by writing something

he had first hand information about.”

Dashiell HammettDashiell Hammett

He made some of it up; all writers do;

Dashiell HammettDashiell Hammett

He made some of it up; all

writers do; but it had a basis in

fact;

Dashiell HammettDashiell Hammett

He made some of it up; all

writers do; but it had a basis in fact; it was

made up out of real things.

Dashiell HammettDashiell Hammett“Hemingway may have learned something from Hammett, as well as from writers like Dreiser, Ring Lardner, Carl Sandburg, Sherwood Anderson and himself. A rather revolutionary debunking of both the language and material of fiction had been going on for some time. “

Dashiell HammettDashiell Hammett“Hemingway may have learned something from Hammett, as well as from writers like Dreiser, Ring Lardner, Carl Sandburg, Sherwood Anderson and himself. A rather revolutionary debunking of both the language and material of fiction had been going on for some time. “

“You can take it clear back to Walt Whitman, if you like. “