Although much has been written about Raymond Chandler, his life’s story has never been told comprehensively in his own words–until now. Barry Day has cannily, deftly selected quotations from Chandler’s writing, as well as the many interviews he gave over the years, to weave together an illuminating narrative that reveals the man, the work, and the worlds he created. Through Chandler’s own words as well as Day’s text, here is a tour of the life of the man who balanced the values of his classical English education against those of a fast-evolving America during the years before the Great War. Chandler makes clear what it is to be a writer, and in particular what it is to be a writer of hardboiled fiction. Interwoven throughout are more than one hundred pictures that help bring his psyche and his world to life on the page.