Raymond Chandler: A Biography

Hiney on Chandler is as good as it gets. Somewhere in that book, Chandler is quoted as saying that those men who stand up in a line abreast and walk forward into live machine-gun fire gain a perspective on life that those who haven't done it never achieve. My guess is that recovery from such an experience involves copious amounts of booze, countless reams of paper, and the occasional company of others who survived a similar adventure.

Contains relatively little about his writing process, focusing instead on what was going on in his life. By page count, most attention paid to his latter years when most of his output was behind him. How he managed to function at all in the latter stages of his alcoholism boggles the mind.

One of the most intriguing throwaways was that apparently Dr. Seuss was a drinking buddy.

Anybody who likes Raymond Chandler's books will like Tom Hiney's biography of Raymond Chandler. Read this book and you will know how the Hard-Boiled Dick got to be so hard and why he drank so much.

Chandler's life and career, attention to drinking

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