"Outside of a dog, man's best friend is a book. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
— Groucho Marx
Raymond Chandler | First Editions
1888 - 1959
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was a British-American novelist and screenwriter. At the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive, during the Great Depression. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). All but Playback have been made into motion pictures. In 1958, Chandler was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is considered to be a founder of the hard-boiled school of detective fiction, along with other Black Mask writers. Three of Chandler's works have long been considered masterpieces: Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Little Sister (1949), and The Long Goodbye (1953). The Long Goodbye was praised in an anthology of American crime stories as "arguably the first book since Hammett's The Glass Key [...] to qualify as a serious and significant mainstream novel that just happened to possess elements of mystery".
See below our stock of Raymond Chandler First Editions, fine bindings, and signed copies.
Results 1 - 11 (of 11)
Chandler Before Marlowe: Raymond Chandler's Early Prose and Poetry, 1908-1912.
Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1973. [Posthumous anthology] LIMITED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.xviii; 110. With a frontispiece of the author. Number 167 of 499 copies. Publisher's red quarter faux leather with gilt titles to spine and mottled cream paper over boards. Matching cream endpapers; all..... More
Killer In The Rain. Being: Killer in the Rain; The Man who liked Dogs; The Curtain; Try the Girl; Mandarin's Jade; Bay City Blues; The Lady in the Lake; No Crime in the Mountains. With an Introduction by Philip Durham.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964. [Modern literature] FIRST US EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.[2]; xii; [2]; 394; [6]. Publisher's blue cloth, white titles to upper and spine. With the pictorial dust-jacket designed by Rob Howard priced at $5.50 to front flap. Light pencil annotations here and there. Gentle wear to..... More
Killer In The Rain. Being: Killer in the Rain; The Man who liked Dogs; The Curtain; Try the Girl; Mandarin's Jade; Bay City Blues; The Lady in the Lake; No Crime in the Mountains. With an Introduction by Philip Durham.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1964. [Crime stories] FIRST EDITION (stated). Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.394. Publisher's blue cloth in pictorial dust-wrapper designed by Rob Howard, priced at $5.50. Contents and page edges clean, jacket with a little edgewear and a crease to the spine panel, neat tape reinforcement to..... More
The Long Goodbye.
London: Hamish Hamilton, 1953. [Detective novel] TRUE FIRST EDITION, preceding the US edition by one year. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[2] 320 [2]. Handsomely bound in half navy oasis morocco, with raised bands, gilt titles to twin red morocco labels, and marbled paper over boards, t.e.g. Contents clean, minor thumbing..... More
Playback.
London: Hamish Hamilton, 1958. [Crime fiction] FIRST UK EDITION, First Impression. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp. 208. Publisher's red cloth in dust jacket priced at 12/6. No inscriptions. Contents clean, one mark to fore-edge, bright jacket is a little rubbed to spine tips, neatly re-touched to reverse side as show..... More
The Black-Eyed Blonde. A Philip Marlowe Novel.
New York, NY: The Mysterious Bookshop / Henry Holt, 2014. [Detective mystery] SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[xii]; 290; [4]. Limited to 100 copies SIGNED by the author in black ink to limitation page. Publisher's quarter black leatherette with gilt titles to spine and marbled paper over boards..... More
Contributes 'My Monte Carlo System' to Encore; The Sunday Times Book.
London: Michael Joseph, 1962. [Literary Anthology] FIRST EDITION. Large Octavo (23 x 16cm), pp.488. Publisher's blue cloth with original pictorial dust-jacket priced at 25s. Contents clean, edges toned, no inscriptions, jacket chipped to crown and rear but without the heavy sunning to the red spine often encountered. Very good. Uncommon..... More
Contribute 'A Golfing Nightmare' and 'The Terrible Dr. No' to Encore; The Sunday Times Book, Second Year. Edited by Leonard Russell.
London: Micheal Joseph, 1963. [Literary articles/essays/anecdotes] FIRST EDITION. Large octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.406. Publisher's red cloth, top edge blue with original pictorial dust-jacket priced at 25s. Discreet initials to endpaper, jacket clipped otherwise a particularly fine, fresh copy. Outstanding. A collection of outstanding articles contributed to the Sunday Times..... More
![Item #64897 For Bond Lovers Only [The Files on that Man]. Ian FLEMING, Raymond, CHANDLER, Allen,...](https://harringtonbooks-co-uk.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/64897.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1692808563)
For Bond Lovers Only [The Files on that Man].
London: Panther Books, 1965. [James Bond reference] FIRST PRINTING. Octavo (17 x 11cm), pp.175; [1] advertisement, with 48 full-page plates. A Paperback original, with photographic softcovers. Small, neat ink name, cheap paper stock toned as expected, soft reading crease to spine. One photographic leaf loose to center. Near fine. A...... More
![Item #66161 For Bond Lovers Only [The Files on that Man]. Ian FLEMING, Raymond, CHANDLER, Allen,...](https://harringtonbooks-co-uk.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/66161.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1698079693)
For Bond Lovers Only [The Files on that Man].
London: Panther Books, 1965. [James Bond reference] FIRST PRINTING. Octavo (17 x 11cm), pp.175; [1] advertisement, with 48 full-page plates. A Paperback original, with photographic softcovers. Cheap paper stock toned as expected, plates not loose as often found, covers quite fresh. A fine copy. A fine selection of literary and..... More
![Item #66162 For Bond Lovers Only [The Files on that Man]. Ian FLEMING, Raymond, CHANDLER, Allen,...](https://harringtonbooks-co-uk.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/66162.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1698079693)
For Bond Lovers Only [The Files on that Man].
New York: Dell Publishing, 1965. [James Bond reference] FIRST U.S. PRINTING. Octavo (17 x 11cm), pp.175; [1] advertisement, with 48 full-page plates. A Paperback original, with photographic softcovers, priced at 60c, all edges green. Cheap paper stock toned as expected, covers fresh. A lovely fine copy. Uncommon thus. A fine..... More
Results 1 - 11 (of 11)