Publication Order of Philip Marlowe Books
| The Big Sleep | 1939 |
| Farewell, My Lovely | 1940 |
| The High Window | 1942 |
| The Lady in the Lake | 1943 |
| The Little Sister | 1949 |
| The Long Goodbye / The Long Good-Bye | 1953 |
| Playback | 1958 |
| Poodle Springs (With: Robert B. Parker) | 1989 |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
| Five Murderers | 1944 |
| Five Sinister Characters | 1945 |
| Red Wind | 1946 |
| Spanish Blood | 1946 |
| Finger Man and Other Stories | 1947 |
| The Simple Art of Murder | 1950 |
| Trouble Is My Business | 1950 |
| Pick-Up on Noon Street | 1952 |
| Smart-Aleck Kill | 1953 |
| Pearls Are a Nuisance | 1958 |
| Killer in the Rain | 1964 |
| The Smell of Fear | 1965 |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
| Raymond Chandler Speaking | 1962 |
| Chandler Before Marlowe: Raymond Chandler’s Early Prose and Poetry, 1908-1912 | 1973 |
| The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler and English Summer: A Gothic Romance | 1976 |
| Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler | 1981 |
| The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Non-Fiction, 1909-1959 | 2000 |
About Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler (born 1888, died 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter, and a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction. He is best known for the private detective Philip Marlowe, who first appeared in “The Big Sleep” (1939) and is the protagonist of all seven novels Chandler completed.
Chandler was born in Chicago on 23 July 1888 and spent his early years in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. After his father abandoned the family, his mother took him to England in 1900, where he was educated at Dulwich College in London. He worked in the civil service and as a reporter for the Daily Express before returning to America in 1912 and settling in Los Angeles the following year. In 1917 he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and saw combat in France. He married Cissy Pascal in 1924.
By 1931 he was a highly paid vice-president of the Dabney Oil Syndicate, but he was dismissed a year later. With money short during the Great Depression he taught himself to write pulp fiction, and his first story, “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot”, appeared in Black Mask magazine in 1933. He reworked several of his magazine stories into the early Marlowe novels: “The Big Sleep”, “Farewell, My Lovely” (1940) and “The Lady in the Lake” (1943) all draw on earlier short stories.
Success brought work in Hollywood. He and Billy Wilder co-wrote “Double Indemnity” (1944), and his original screenplay for “The Blue Dahlia” (1946) earned him a second Academy Award nomination. He also worked on Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train” (1951). Marlowe reached the screen in “Murder, My Sweet” (1944), played by Dick Powell, and Humphrey Bogart took the role in “The Big Sleep” (1946).
In 1946 the Chandlers moved to La Jolla, California, where he wrote “The Long Goodbye” (1953), winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1955, and his last completed novel, “Playback” (1958). Cissy died in 1954. Chandler was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America in the year before his death, and he died on 26 March 1959. Four chapters of an unfinished Marlowe novel were completed by Robert B. Parker and published as “Poodle Springs” in 1989. His essay “The Simple Art of Murder” remains a standard piece of criticism on detective fiction.