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Auction archive: Lot number 74

CHANDLER, RAYMOND (1888-1959). TYPED LETTER SIGNED ("RAY") TO MICHAEL GILBERT, HIS LONDON SOLICITOR, LA JOLLA, CAL., 25 MARCH 1957. 5 PAGES, 4TO, ON THREE BLUE SHEETS OF HIS STATIONERY, SINGLE-SPACED, BLUE RIBBON, HIS NAME AND ADDRESS PRINTED AT TOP ...

Auction 09.06.1999
9 Jun 1999
Estimate
US$2,500 - US$3,500
Price realised:
US$3,680
Auction archive: Lot number 74

CHANDLER, RAYMOND (1888-1959). TYPED LETTER SIGNED ("RAY") TO MICHAEL GILBERT, HIS LONDON SOLICITOR, LA JOLLA, CAL., 25 MARCH 1957. 5 PAGES, 4TO, ON THREE BLUE SHEETS OF HIS STATIONERY, SINGLE-SPACED, BLUE RIBBON, HIS NAME AND ADDRESS PRINTED AT TOP ...

Auction 09.06.1999
9 Jun 1999
Estimate
US$2,500 - US$3,500
Price realised:
US$3,680
Beschreibung:

CHANDLER, RAYMOND (1888-1959). TYPED LETTER SIGNED ("RAY") TO MICHAEL GILBERT, HIS LONDON SOLICITOR, LA JOLLA, CAL., 25 MARCH 1957. 5 PAGES, 4TO, ON THREE BLUE SHEETS OF HIS STATIONERY, SINGLE-SPACED, BLUE RIBBON, HIS NAME AND ADDRESS PRINTED AT TOP OF FIRST PAGE, WITH SEVERAL TYPOGRAPHICAL CORRECTIONS BY CHANDLER, TWO PUNCH HOLES IN EACH LEFT-HAND MARGIN WITH LOSS OF A FEW LETTERS . "I MAY HAVE WRITTEN THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN VERNACULAR THAT HAS EVER BEEN WRITTEN" A lengthy letter in which the first four pages are devoted to an absorbing and detailed account of the complicated history of his British (versus American) citizenship status (he needed it clarified for tax purposes): "... I don't think I ever told you this story, but I must now. My mother, British born, divorced my father when I was very young and went back to England with me ..." On page five Chandler writes tellingly of himself as an author: "... I am not the type to live a secluded life. I need stimulation and excitement, friends who can talk above the level of a dog kennel or a beach club. You can write books on a train [Gilbert was also a detective story writer]. I can only write in an atmosphere that is charged ... Of course I have been successful and of course I have made a lot of money, but these things may be largely luck. I don't feel any more important than when I was writing for the pulps ... for a writer or author to be self-centered or arrogant is just a sign of stupidity. What have we to be arrogant about? One does the best one can at the time, sometimes in very torturing circumstances ... and if he has a big success, that doesn't make him anything he wasn't before. He still has his neck on the block. He can still flop or lose his touch. I am the same man I was when I was a struggling nobody ... I know more, it is true, I break all the rules and get away with it, but that doesn't make me important. I may have written the most beautiful American vernacular that has ever been written (some people think I have), but if it is so, I am still a writer trying to find his way through a maze ..."

Auction archive: Lot number 74
Auction:
Datum:
9 Jun 1999
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Rockefeller Center
Beschreibung:

CHANDLER, RAYMOND (1888-1959). TYPED LETTER SIGNED ("RAY") TO MICHAEL GILBERT, HIS LONDON SOLICITOR, LA JOLLA, CAL., 25 MARCH 1957. 5 PAGES, 4TO, ON THREE BLUE SHEETS OF HIS STATIONERY, SINGLE-SPACED, BLUE RIBBON, HIS NAME AND ADDRESS PRINTED AT TOP OF FIRST PAGE, WITH SEVERAL TYPOGRAPHICAL CORRECTIONS BY CHANDLER, TWO PUNCH HOLES IN EACH LEFT-HAND MARGIN WITH LOSS OF A FEW LETTERS . "I MAY HAVE WRITTEN THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN VERNACULAR THAT HAS EVER BEEN WRITTEN" A lengthy letter in which the first four pages are devoted to an absorbing and detailed account of the complicated history of his British (versus American) citizenship status (he needed it clarified for tax purposes): "... I don't think I ever told you this story, but I must now. My mother, British born, divorced my father when I was very young and went back to England with me ..." On page five Chandler writes tellingly of himself as an author: "... I am not the type to live a secluded life. I need stimulation and excitement, friends who can talk above the level of a dog kennel or a beach club. You can write books on a train [Gilbert was also a detective story writer]. I can only write in an atmosphere that is charged ... Of course I have been successful and of course I have made a lot of money, but these things may be largely luck. I don't feel any more important than when I was writing for the pulps ... for a writer or author to be self-centered or arrogant is just a sign of stupidity. What have we to be arrogant about? One does the best one can at the time, sometimes in very torturing circumstances ... and if he has a big success, that doesn't make him anything he wasn't before. He still has his neck on the block. He can still flop or lose his touch. I am the same man I was when I was a struggling nobody ... I know more, it is true, I break all the rules and get away with it, but that doesn't make me important. I may have written the most beautiful American vernacular that has ever been written (some people think I have), but if it is so, I am still a writer trying to find his way through a maze ..."

Auction archive: Lot number 74
Auction:
Datum:
9 Jun 1999
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Rockefeller Center
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