Annotated Big Sleep

From Jonathan Lethem’s foreword to The Annotated Big Sleep“Nothing, even a book as singular and archetypal as The Big Sleep, comes from nowhere. What a gift, to see in part how Chandler made it. Under just three names, these annotators number among them two poets, an archivist and literary scholar, a gifted crime novelist, and three sleuths; reading it conveys the vicarious thrill of their innumerable discoveries. Chandler lucked out.”

RAYMOND CHANDLER (1888-1959) turned to writing fiction at the age of forty-five, after a career as an oil executive. He published his first story in Black Mask in 1933, and his first novel, The Big Sleep, in 1939. Over his lifetime, Chandler wrote seven novels, several screenplays, and numerous short stories, and became the master practitioner of American hard-boiled crime fiction.

OWEN HILL is the author of two mystery novels, a book of short fiction, and several books of poetry. He has reviewed crime novels for the Los Angeles Times and the East Bay Express, and is on the editorial board at the University of New Orleans. He is also a buyer and events coordinator at Moe’s Books in Berkeley, California.

PAMELA JACKSON is an editor, scholar, and librarian specializing in California literary and cultural history. She holds a PhD from UC Berkeley and an MLIS from UCLA, and was coeditor, with Jonathan Lethem, of The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick.

ANTHONY RIZZUTO is a bookseller, professor of literature, and researcher. He currently teaches British and American literature and history at Sonoma State University.

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