This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/26/2022
CHANDLER, Raymond (1888–1959). Typed letter signed (“Ray”) to his literary agent Edgar Carter at H.N. Swanson Inc., 5 December 1956. 4 pages, small 4to (279 x 184 mm), on personal letterhead, several hand–corrections and notations by Chandler, old folds, old staple holes at upper corner. A lengthy and unpublished letter discussing numerous topics including television film rights for “The Lady in the Lake” and compensation for the television dramatization of “The Big Sleep”. Chandler complains that he cannot get a long–standing television show based on his detective novels but others can. “I am everywhere –– or let’s say almost everywhere acknowledged to be about the best in the field, yet no TV for me… In the Daily Express… there was a survey of lowbrow, middlebrow, and highbrow favorites in art, records, TV, shows, films, Liberace, favorite authors, radio and dream girls. Marilyn Monroe and I were the only two that were cited in all three brackets… (Graham Greene only made the middlebrow bracket, which I thought all wrong), but it does suggest that I am widely known”. Chandler concludes the letter with “an absolutely true story” of his journey to Chicago aboard the New York Central, the first of which was a racist joke regarding two Black porters, one of whom waited on a wealthy gentleman who received a generous tip: “Man, you lucky brother. You eatin’ lucky today. Three bucks tip ain’t sneezin’ money” said the other waiter. The waiter that received the tip replied: “Nothin’ to it, colored brother. I jus’ give him some of that deep South stuff”. The second story then turned into an attempted dirty joke: “A gentleman in a Parisian pissoir stood for what he thought rather too long a time behind another gentleman who was using the receptacle. Finally the former tapped the man in front of him on the shoulder and said: ‘Pardonne moi, monsieur, mai you êtes bien longtemps à pisser.’ The man in front turned his head very slightly and replied: ‘Mais je ne pisse pas, mosier. Je m’abuse.’ The other’s face lighted up with a smile. He said very genially; ‘Alors, j’en suis desole’, monsieur. Mille pardons, je vous en prie! Continuez, monsieur, continuez!”