[SensualPoet]

Chicago born novelist / screenwriter Raymond Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) wrote only seven novels, all of them concerning private detective Philip Marlowe. Farewell, My Lovely, published in 1940, was his second, following on the strong success The Big Sleep. But initial sales were disappointing at 2,900 copies; his publisher, Knopf, cancelled plans for a second printing. (By 1945 his fortunes had shifted and his first two titles had sold already 750,000 in paperback.)

In a number of ways Farewell, My Lovely is a stronger story, and offers a number of deeply etched and highly entertaining characters. It doesn't have as much snappy dialogue -- but that's only measured by Chandler standards. There's an extended sequence where Marlowe is on a bender -- which was nicely captured in a film version -- and in print is something of a tour de force. Many pages after the effects have ostensibly worn off, Marlowe lapses into the fog leaving the reader slightly off-balance. Most extraordinary is the matter-of-fact way in which gay characters crop up and play critical roles -- something entirely lost in the film versions. The tenderness Chandler lavishes on these portrayals and interactions with Marlowe is a surprise including his observation: "[Red] smiled a slow tired smile. His voice was soft, dreamy, so delicate for a big man that it was startling. It made me think of another soft-voiced big man I had strangely liked."

And in one brief aside, Chandler takes a direct swipe by name at movie censor moralist Will Hays whom Chandler (and much of Hollywood) despised.

In 1944, Farewell, My Lovely -- in a much bastardized form -- was turned into an RKO picture starring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor, directed by the later celebrated noir emigré Edward Dmytryk.