Author Raymond Chandler celebrated on anniversary

“The streets were dark with something more than night.”

— Raymond Chandler on Los Angeles

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Raymond Chandler’s death.

To celebrate his work, a small group of fans and scholars gathered
at USC on Wednesday night to discuss the works of the author who
elevated the detective novel to an art form and who, perhaps more than
any other writer, is identified with Los Angeles, a city he loved to
hate.

The panel of speakers included moderator Judith Freeman, a novelist
and Chandler biographer, Kenneth Turan, a film critic for the Los
Angeles Times, Leo Braudy, author and film critic, and Denise Hamilton,
a former Los Angeles Times staff writer and author of the Eva Diamond
crime novels.

The discussion ranged from Chandler’s difficulty with plot lines to
similarities between the author and detective Philip Marlowe, a loner
and failed knight in an increasingly corrupt city.

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