The Literary Estate of Raymond Chandler
Preserving, protecting, and promoting the work and legacy of writer Raymond Chandler.
ABOUT
Welcome to the official home of Raymond Chandler and his enduring literary creation, Philip Marlowe. Since the publication of his first novels in the 1930s, Chandler’s characters have lived on through print and film. They continue to inspire new adaptations in cinema and graphic novels today.
Chandler was a character himself. He was a British-American oil-man turned pulp fiction novelist, a lover of cats, a student of the seamier side of Los Angeles, and a poet. He died in 1959 and left his estate to Helga Greene, his literary agent. He had proposed to her in the last days of his life, providing a plot twist as dramatic as any in his fiction.
He left a legacy of turning crime fiction into an art form. His work combined graceful, wit-laden prose with a knack for unforgettable characters and moral complexity. This literary estate has been passed down through the Greene family and is now managed by Raymond Chandler Limited, which oversees the licensing of his work and upholds his legacy.
Welcome to a ride through the Los Angeles of the 1930s and 40s: a world of cynicism, slang, and cigars.
CHANDLER’S LAW:
“When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.”
