Mystery writer Raymond Chandler was born on this date in 1888.  Chandler was, of course, the creator of private eye Phillip Marlowe.

Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, were the two writers most responsible for developing the noir school of detective writing.  Chandler’s influence is still felt today.

Times and tastes have changed since the 1930s and 1940s, when most of Chandler’s work was published, and in some circles he’s fallen out of favor with those who feel that people from the past should have the same enlightened views as those of today.

I’m not one of those folks.  I can take the good with the bad.  After all, I’m a big boy and am capable of seeing through eyes not my own.

Chandler’s short fiction was recently collected in hardcovers in Raymond Chandler:  Collected Stories.  (Unfortunately there is no ebook.)  Check it out.  There was no one who wrote quite like Chandler.