Judith Freeman on Raymond Chandler

The number of people who actually knew Raymond Chandler and who are
still alive can pretty much be counted on one hand. Chandler died 50
years ago last week, on March 26, 1959, at the age of 70. Among his
surviving friends are Natasha Spender, wife of the late poet Stephen
Spender (now in her 90s), and the writer Neil Morgan, who, as a young
journalist at the San Diego Tribune, met the writer.

A few other less-well-known individuals still survive and, through an
unusual circumstance, I met one of them a little over a year ago. Her
name was Dorothy Fisher — née Gruber. In the fall of 2007, she wrote
me a letter after reading a review of my book "The Long Embrace:
Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved" in this newspaper. She said
she'd enjoyed the review very much and was anxious to get my book —
especially, she said, because she had been Chandler's secretary in the
1940s at Paramount Studios. "I have many stories I'd like to tell you,
if you're interested," she wrote. "You may not be interested, but if
you are, give me a call," and she included her phone number.

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