The Long Goodbye

About the Author

RAYMOND CHANDLER was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 23, 1888, but spent most of his boyhood and youth in England, where he attended Duiwich College and later worked as a free-lance journalist for The Westminster Gazette and The Spectator. During World War I, he served in France with the First Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, transferring later to the Royal flying Corps (R.A.F.). In 1919 -he returned to the United States, settling in California, where he eventually became director of a number of indepen- dent oil companies. The Depression put an end to his business career, and in 1933, at the age of forty-five, he turned to writing, publishing -his first stories in Black Mask. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 19 39. Never a prolific writer, he published only one collection of stories and seven novels in his lifetime. In the last year of his life he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. He died in La Jolla, California, on March 26, 1959.