Friday, August 03, 2007

Revising THE LONG GOODBYE

Mark Coggins has a great article on some of the revisions Raymond Chandler made in what some think of as his best novel. One person who thought that was Bruce Taylor, which is why I like Mark's opening paragraph so much. Typical Taylor. Anyway, go read the whole article.

Mark Coggins - Writing The Long Goodbye: "When Bruce Taylor owned the San Francisco Mystery Bookstore, he had a table of featured books in a central location. The books on the table changed from time to time to highlight currently popular releases or books that Bruce had read recently and enjoyed. But one book was never removed: Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye. And beneath the stack of continuously restocked copies was a hand-written note that read, 'Best Book in the Store.'"

6 comments:

Randy Johnson said...

He likely wasn't wrong.

mybillcrider said...

Not everyone would agree, though. Coggins has a couple of comments about that.

Anonymous said...

Well, I learned something new today; I always thought that Chandler's famous "half-sheets" were 8.5" wide by 5.5" long, not the reverse.

Or did he take normal sheets of 8.5 x 11 paper, cut them in half, and put them in his typewriter sideways?

I re-read FAREWELL MY LOVELY and RED HARVEST on a much more regular basis than THE LONG GOODBYE.

mybillcrider said...

For reasons I can't even explain, I've always been partial to The Little Sister, but I love 'em all.

Anonymous said...

This really makes me want to re-read the book, it's been a long time. Too long.

mybillcrider said...

Hey, Rick. Good to see you visiting here!