Below, an anxious Raymond Chandler inquires after a story he sent to a friend—editor of the London Sunday Times, Leonard Russell. Despite Chandler’s notoriously hostile attitude towards critics, Chandler and Russell sustained a personal correspondence over many years.
6005 Camino de la Costa
La Jolla, California
December 11, 1952
Dear Leonard Russell:
Remember me? Chandler? We met once briefly in London. We had dinner at your house, and very charming it was. And you had a couple of pink gins at my hotel, and very charming that was, except that it led me to send you a story called “A Couple of Writers,” which was dispatched by airmail on October 29, 1952. And the rest is silence. Don’t think I’m anxious. Don’t think I’m disheartened. I told you the worst about the story. And after all, you asked me to send it to you. I think some brief acknowledgement might be in order, if the story every reached you. I’m beginning to wonder if it did.
My wife has been very ill. She is back home from the hospital, but still very frail and still in bed. Mostly on that account we have decided to forget all about Christmas this year, cards included. So may I now wish you and Dilys Powell whatever in this sad world remains of peace and happiness, such as red sunsets, the smell of roses after a summer rain, soft carpets in quiet rooms, firelight, and old friends.
Yours ever,
Ray
FURTHER READING
Chandler “On Writing.”
Peter Straub’s off-kilter meditation on the author, “45 Calibrations of Raymond Chandler.” Published in Conjunctions (Fall 1997).