121-538: Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter . In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression . His first short story, " Blackmailers Don't Shoot ", was published in 1933 in Black Mask , a popular pulp magazine . His first novel, The Big Sleep ,
242-551: A Christian denomination , principally the Church of England , but in some cases the Roman Catholic and Methodist churches. A small number are non-denominational or inherently secular, including Oswestry School , Bedales and University College School . A minor public school is defined in Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable as "a somewhat demeaning term dating from
363-612: A Committee on Public Schools under the leadership of David Fleming . The committee was tasked to "consider means whereby the association between the Public Schools and the general educational system of the country could be developed and extended". The Fleming Report (1944) entitled The Public Schools and the General Education System defined a public school as a member of the Governing Bodies Association or
484-640: A charity is defined as an institution established for a charitable purpose and providing a public benefit. The "advancement of education" is a long-standing charitable purpose. The UK's oldest charity is the King's School Canterbury . Charitable status for schools outside of the state maintained sector confers various tax benefits. This means schools are not liable for corporation tax or capital gains tax and receive an 80% reduction in business rates (a local property tax). Donations by individuals to such schools are considered "tax free". Fee-charging schools having
605-674: A film studio , production company , TV network, or producer, they often have to continue networking, mainly with directors or executives, and push to have their projects "chosen" and turned into films or TV shows. If interest in a script begins to fade, a project can go dead. The International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG) is the international federation of screenwriters' and playwrights' unions, who recognize union membership across international borders. They have 14 different affiliates across various nations who collectively work to verify original authorship, fight for fair compensation, and enforce copyright. Most professional screenwriters in
726-470: A "Raymond Chandler Award". Chandler left an unfinished novel when he died. This was completed by Robert B. Parker and published in 1989 as Poodle Springs . Screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter , scribe , or scenarist ) is someone who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting . These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television commercials, video games, and
847-463: A "rather nasty man at times". Anderson nevertheless praised Chandler as "probably the most lyrical of the major crime writers". Chandler's short stories and novels are evocatively written, conveying the time, place and ambiance of Los Angeles and environs in the 1930s and 1940s. The places are real, if pseudonymous: Bay City is Santa Monica , Gray Lake is Silver Lake , and Idle Valley a synthesis of wealthy San Fernando Valley communities. Playback
968-495: A Public School...is that it is an aristocratic or plutocratic school which is wholly or almost wholly a Boarding School, is under some form of more or less public control, and is ... non-local". Edward C. Mack in 1938 proposed the simple definition of "a non-local endowed boarding school for the upper classes". Vivian Ogilvie in The English Public School (1957) suggests five "characteristics commonly associated with
1089-408: A career. The English public school model influenced the 19th-century development of Scottish elite schools, but a tradition of the gentry sharing their primary education with their tenants kept Scotland more egalitarian. Former Harrow pupil Stanley Baldwin wrote that when he first became Prime Minister in 1923, he wanted to have six Harrovians in his government . "To make a cabinet is like making
1210-402: A cat on a wet floor"; "He was crazy as a pair of waltzing mice, but I liked him"; "I felt like an amputated leg"; "He was about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food." Chandler's writing redefined the private eye fiction genre, led to the coining of the adjective "Chandleresque", and inevitably became the subject of parody and pastiche . Yet the detective Philip Marlowe is not
1331-409: A first draft. Multi-step deals, where the writer is signed on for more than the first draft (typically including a rewrite) can earn a screenwriter more, with experienced WGA members earning up to $ 5,000,000 for their work. Non-union screenwriters can also work for a salary, but will typically earn less than a unionized screenwriter. Pay can vary dramatically for a non-unionized screenwriter. Some of
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#17331153147421452-405: A good way to try to learn to write fiction and get paid a small amount of money at the same time. I spent five months over an 18,000 word novelette and sold it for $ 180. After that I never looked back, although I had a good many uneasy periods looking forward. His second Marlowe novel, Farewell, My Lovely (1940), became the basis for three movie versions adapted by other screenwriters, including
1573-537: A grant from central government. The direct grant grammar schools would henceforth receive partial state funding (a "direct grant") in return for taking between 25 and 50 percent of its pupils from state primary schools. Other grammar schools were funded by Local Education Authorities . The Labour government in 1965 made major changes to the organisation of state maintained schools issuing Circular 10/65 which directed local authorities to phase out selection at eleven years of age. It also fulfilled its pledge to examine
1694-417: A great impression on me, because Middleton struck me as having far more talent than I was ever likely to possess; and if he couldn't make a go of it, it wasn't very likely that I could." Accounting for that time he said, "Of course in those days as now there were ... clever young men who made a decent living as freelances for the numerous literary weeklies", but "I was distinctly not a clever young man. Nor
1815-640: A great want in Cork—namely, a good public school, and with the object of inducing persons who had been sending their children to England, to educate them at home'. In 2020 6.7% of the school population in the Republic of Ireland attended 'elite' fee charging schools. In 1892 Haileybury alumnus Charles Rendall, founded Haileybury "altera terra" in Melbourne, Australia. In the 20th and 21st centuries, several public schools opened affiliates in other countries, especially
1936-550: A jig-saw puzzle fit, and I managed to make my six fit by keeping the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer for myself". Until the First World War , the role of public schools in preparing pupils for the gentlemanly elite meant that such education, particularly in its classical focus and social mannerisms, became a mark of the ruling class . Acceptance of social elitism was reduced by the two world wars, but despite portrayals of
2057-458: A new grave marker above Chandler's, as they had wished. About 100 people attended the ceremony, which included readings by the Rev. Randal Gardner, Powers Boothe , Judith Freeman and Aissa Wayne. The shared gravestone reads, "Dead men are heavier than broken hearts", a quotation from The Big Sleep . Chandler's original gravestone, placed by Jean Fracasse and her children, is still at the head of his grave;
2178-544: A new model for the nineteenth and early twentieth century public school. Arnold developed the praepostor (or prefect ) system, in which a group of senior boys were given disciplinary powers of other pupils. This became a standard method to establish good order in the public schools, which had developed a reputation for rowdiness and on occasion, serious disorder. King's College School was founded in 1829 and University College School in 1830. Separate preparatory schools (or "prep schools") for younger boys developed from
2299-648: A position to further a project. Once the script is sold, the writer has only the rights that were agreed with the purchaser. A screenwriter becomes credible by having work that is recognized, which gives the writer the opportunity to earn a higher income. As more films are produced independently (outside the studio system), many up-and-coming screenwriters are turning to pitch fests, screenplay contests, and independent development services to gain access to established and credible independent producers. Many development executives are now working independently to incubate their own pet projects. Screenwriters are rarely involved in
2420-479: A public school" (while allowing that these are not absolute or definitive): "it is a class school, catering for a well-to-do clientèle; it is expensive; it is non-local; it is a predominantly boarding school; it is independent of the State and of local government, yet it is not privately owned or run for profit." Oxford Dictionary of English: 'In England, originally, a grammar-school founded or endowed for use or benefit of
2541-760: A respite in England, he returned to La Jolla. He died at Scripps Memorial Hospital of pneumonial peripheral vascular shock and prerenal uremia (according to the death certificate) in 1959. Helga Greene inherited Chandler's $ 60,000 estate, after prevailing in a 1960 lawsuit filed by Fracasse contesting Chandler's holographic codicil to his will. Chandler is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery , in San Diego, California. As Frank MacShane noted in his biography, The Life of Raymond Chandler , Chandler wished to be cremated and placed next to Cissy in Cypress View Mausoleum. Instead, he
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#17331153147422662-550: A response to the perceived need to modernise such a curriculum in line with commercial needs, the Grammar School Act 1840 was passed. This allowed schools to make an application to a court of law (rather than Parliament) to deviate from the wishes of the original founder and teach "other branches of literature and science". The new public schools established in the early and mid-19th century were not constrained by early endowments and therefore were able from foundation to offer
2783-439: A script to suit the desires of a director or studio . For instance, studio management may have a complaint that the motivations of the characters are unclear or that the dialogue is weak. Hollywood has shifted writers onto and off projects since its earliest days, and the assignment of credits is not always straightforward or complete, which poses a problem for film study. In his book Talking Pictures , Richard Corliss discussed
2904-463: A show of throwing Chandler's two draft screenplays into the studio trash can while holding his nose, but Chandler retained the lead screenwriting credit along with Czenzi Ormonde. In 1946, the Chandlers moved to La Jolla , an affluent coastal neighborhood of San Diego, California, where Chandler wrote two more Philip Marlowe novels, The Long Goodbye and his last completed work, Playback . The latter
3025-567: A situation, I get panned for leaving out what I was panned for putting in the first time." Although his work enjoys general acclaim today, Chandler has been criticized for certain aspects of his writing. The Washington Post reviewer Patrick Anderson described his plots as "rambling at best and incoherent at worst" (notoriously, even Chandler did not know who murdered the chauffeur in The Big Sleep ) and Anderson criticized Chandler's treatment of black, female, and homosexual characters, calling him
3146-486: A sot or dunce, Lascivious, headstrong, or all these at once; That in good time the stripling's finish'd taste For loose expense and fashionable waste Should prove your ruin, and his own at last; Train him in public with a mob of boys, Childish in mischief only and in noise, Else of a mannish growth, and five in ten In infidelity and lewdness men. ..." In 1801 William Vincent , headmaster of Westminster published A Defence of Public Education . It contains
3267-425: A stereotypical tough guy, but a complex, sometimes sentimental man with few friends, who attended university, who speaks some Spanish and sometimes admires Mexicans and Blacks, and who is a student of chess and classical music. He is a man who refuses a prospective client's fee for a job he considers unethical. The high regard in which Chandler is generally held today is in contrast to the critical sniping that stung
3388-488: A storage locker in the basement of Cypress View Mausoleum. After Cissy's death, Chandler's loneliness worsened his propensity for clinical depression ; he returned to drinking alcohol, never quitting it for long, and the quality and quantity of his writing suffered. In 1955, he attempted suicide. In The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved , Judith Freeman says it was "a cry for help," given that he called
3509-532: A technical product, a brief " scenario ", "treatment", or "synopsis" that is a written synopsis of what is to be filmed. Screenwriting is a contracted freelance profession, not a hired position. No education is required to be a professional screenwriter, but good storytelling abilities and imagination give aspiring screenwriters an advantage. Many screenwriters start their careers doing speculative work ("work on spec"), practicing their screenwriting with no guaranteed financial compensation. If one of these scripts
3630-582: A time of scrimping and saving. He found steady employment with the Los Angeles Creamery. In 1917, he traveled to Victoria, where in August he enlisted in the 50th Reinforcement Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force . He saw combat in the trenches in France with the 7th Battalion C.E.F. (British Columbia Regiment). He was twice hospitalized with Spanish flu during the pandemic and was undergoing flight training in
3751-430: A wider range of taught subjects. From the 1850s organised games became prominent in the curriculum, based on the precedent set at Rugby by Thomas Arnold , forming a keystone of character development through teamwork, sportsmanship and self-sacrifice. Hely Almond headmaster at Loretto 1862–1903, in stating 'Games in which success depends on the united efforts of many, and which also foster courage and endurance are
Raymond Chandler - Misplaced Pages Continue
3872-566: A year later. In straitened financial circumstances during the Great Depression , Chandler turned to his latent writing talent to earn a living, teaching himself to write pulp fiction by analyzing and imitating a novelette by Erle Stanley Gardner . Chandler's first professional work, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in Black Mask magazine in 1933. According to genre historian Herbert Ruhm, "Chandler, who worked slowly and painstakingly, revising again and again, had taken five months to write
3993-507: Is Robert Altman 's 1973 neo-noir adaptation of The Long Goodbye . In 2014, the Hollywood Walk of Fame selection committee announced that Raymond Chandler would be included the following year, but as of 2024, he has not been. The intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga Avenue in Hollywood, California is named Raymond Chandler Square, a tribute both to the author and to
4114-420: Is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett , James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe , like Hammett's Sam Spade , is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective". Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart , whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe. The Big Sleep placed second on
4235-461: Is put out about a project that a film studio , production company , or producer wants done, they are referred to as "open" assignments. Open assignments are more competitive. If screenwriters are competing for an open assignment, more established writers usually win the assignments. A screenwriter can also be approached and personally offered a writing assignment. Many screenwriters also work as full- or part-time script doctors , attempting to better
4356-477: Is rarely used in Scotland , where "public school" has been used since the early 18th century to refer to publicly funded schools , and was defined by the 1872 Education (Scotland) Act as including those managed by the school board of a parish, or of a burgh. There are instances of the term being used to refer to elite Scots private fee-paying schools. There is no single or absolute definition of public school , and
4477-412: Is sold, it is called a spec script . Amateur screenwriters will often pursue this work as "writers in training," leading these spec scripts to often go uncredited or come from unknown screenwriters. Further separating professional and amateur screenwriters is that professionals are usually represented by a talent agency . These screenwriter-specific employment agencies work to handle the business side of
4598-512: Is the only one of his novels not to have been made into a movie. Arguably the most notable adaptation is Howard Hawks The Big Sleep (1946), with Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe. William Faulkner and Leigh Brackett were co-writers of the screenplay. Chandler's few screenwriting efforts and the cinematic adaptation of his novels proved stylistically and thematically influential on the American film noir genre. Notable for its revised take on Marlowe
4719-822: The Clarendon schools . The Headmasters' Conference (HMC), now the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, has grown steadily and by 2021 had 298 British and Irish schools as members. Many new schools were established in the mid-part of the nineteenth century including the day schools City of London School (1837) and Liverpool College (1840). New boarding schools included Cheltenham (1841), Marlborough (1843), Rossall (1844), Radley (1847), Taunton (1847), Lancing (1848), Hurstpierpoint (1849), Bradfield (1850), Wellington (1852), Epsom (1855), Ardingly (1858), Clifton (1862), Malvern (1862), Haileybury (1862), Framlingham (1864) and Cranleigh (1865). In 1887
4840-590: The Crime Writers Association poll of the 100 best crime novels; Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady in the Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1953) also made the list. The latter novel was praised in an anthology of American crime stories as "arguably the first book since Hammett's The Glass Key , published more than twenty years earlier, to qualify as a serious and significant mainstream novel that just happened to possess elements of mystery". Chandler
4961-605: The Endowed Schools Act 1869 . In that year Edward Thring , headmaster of Uppingham School , wrote to 37 of his fellow headmasters of what he considered the leading boys' schools, not covered by the Public Schools Act of 1868, inviting them to meet annually to address the threat posed by the Endowed Schools Act of 1869. In the first year 12 headmasters attended; the following year 34 attended, including heads from
Raymond Chandler - Misplaced Pages Continue
5082-515: The Headmasters' Conference . The Fleming Committee recommended that one-quarter of the places at the public schools should be assigned to a national bursary scheme for children who would benefit from boarding. A key advocate was the post-war Minister of Education Ellen Wilkinson , but the proposed national bursary scheme never got into legislation in that post-war age of severe budget constraints. The Conservative government elected in 1951 did not adopt
5203-533: The "literary equivalent of a quick punch to the gut". Chandler's swift-moving, hardboiled style was inspired mostly by Dashiell Hammett , but his sharp and lyrical similes are original: "The muzzle of the Luger looked like the mouth of the Second Street tunnel"; "He had a heart as big as one of Mae West's hips"; "Dead men are heavier than broken hearts"; "I went back to the seasteps and moved down them as cautiously as
5324-678: The "principal schools of England", entitled The History of the Colleges of Winchester, Eton, and Westminster; with the Charter-House, the Schools of St. Paul's, Merchant Taylors, Harrow, and Rugby, and the Free-School of Christ's Hospital . In 1818 Nicholas Carlisle published a two-volume survey entitled A Concise Description of the Endowed Grammar Schools in England and Wales . The survey
5445-526: The (then) United Kingdom. The 1895 Public School Yearbook included Loretto School (1827), Glenalmond College (1847) and Fettes College (1870). In Ireland, of the Royal Schools, The Royal School, Armagh 1608 was described as offering an excellent public school education and being the equal of any school in the British Isles. Cork Grammar School 1881 was established for 'the purpose of supplying
5566-684: The 1830s, with entry to the senior schools becoming limited to boys of at least 12 or 13 years old. The first of these was Windlesham House School , established with support from Thomas Arnold , the headmaster of Rugby School between 1828 and 1841. A Royal Commission , the Clarendon Commission (1861–1864), investigated nine of the more established schools, including seven boarding schools ( Charterhouse , Eton , Harrow , Rugby , Shrewsbury , Westminster and Winchester ) and two day schools ( St Paul's and Merchant Taylors' ). The Public Schools Act 1868 subsequently regulated and reformed
5687-420: The 1930s for an English public school that is not one of the ancient foundations, such as Eton, Harrow, Rugby or Winchester". Public school rivalry is a factor in the perception of a "great" (or "major") versus "minor" distinction. The perception of a top tier of public schools is long standing but with some debate on membership. Howard Staunton 's book of 1865 entitled The Great Schools of England considered
5808-504: The 1944 Fleming Committee definition of Public Schools, which consisted of schools which were members of the then Headmasters' Conference , the Governing Bodies Association or the Girls' Schools Association . At that time, there were 276 such independent schools (134 boys and 142 girls), which the 1965 Public Schools Commission took in scope of its work and also considered 22 maintained and 152 direct grant grammar schools . In 2023, using
5929-450: The 1944 film Murder My Sweet , which marked the screen debut of the Marlowe character, played by Dick Powell (whose depiction of Marlowe was applauded by Chandler). Literary success and film adaptations led to a demand for Chandler himself as a screenwriter. He and Billy Wilder co-wrote Double Indemnity (1944), based on James M. Cain 's novel of the same title . The noir screenplay
6050-450: The 1965 Public Schools Commission definition or the 1944 Fleming Committee definition, there are 302 independent secondary schools belonging to the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (78% of HMC schools are co-educational, 9% are boys only and 13% are girls only), and 152 independent girls' secondary schools belonging to the Girls' Schools Association . The majority of public schools are affiliated with, or were established by,
6171-590: The Act: Eton , Shrewsbury , Harrow , Winchester , Rugby , Westminster , and Charterhouse . Public schools are elite institutions and are associated with the ruling class . Historically, public schools produced many of the military officers and administrators of the British Empire . In 2019, two-thirds of cabinet ministers of the United Kingdom had been educated at such fee-charging schools. The term
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#17331153147426292-508: The Clarendon nine, four are (or are soon to be, in the case of Westminster) fully co-educational ( Rugby , Charterhouse , Shrewsbury and Westminster ), two remain as boys-only day schools ( St Paul's and Merchant Taylors' ) and two retain the full-boarding, boys-only tradition ( Eton and Harrow ). Winchester was formerly part of the last group. By the end of the 19th century the "public school movement", had extended to all parts of
6413-661: The Crown , the established church , or the government. Henceforth each of these schools was to be managed by a board of governors . St Paul's School and the Merchant Taylors' School claimed successfully that their constitutions made them "private" schools, and were excluded from the requirements of this legislation. The Taunton Commission was appointed in 1864 to examine the remaining 782 endowed grammar schools , and in 1868 produced recommendations to restructure their endowments; these recommendations were included, in modified form, in
6534-607: The Divisional Court and the Court of Appeal determined that the City of London School was a public school. The Public Schools Yearbook was published for the first time in 1889, listing 30 schools, mostly boarding schools. The day school exceptions were St Paul's School and Merchant Taylors' School . By 1895 there were entries for 64 schools. Frederick William Sanderson , Headmaster of Oundle School , initiated educational reforms at
6655-779: The Ely Cathedral Grammar School, then the King's School Ely when refounded in 1541 by Henry VIII , subsequently adopting the current name in 2012) and St Albans School c. 948 . Until the Late Middle Ages most schools were controlled by the Church; and had specific entrance criteria; others were restricted to the sons of members of guilds, trades, or livery companies . In 1382 William of Wykeham , Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England , founded Winchester College . In 1440 Henry VI founded Eton College. These schools had significantly larger foundations than
6776-566: The HMC. State funding was however revived between 1981 and 1997 with the introduction of the Assisted Places Scheme , which provided support for 80,000 pupils attending schools not part of the state maintained sector. Many boarding schools started to admit day pupils for the first time, and others abolished boarding completely. Some started accepting girls in the sixth form , while others became fully co-educational . Corporal punishment ,
6897-604: The Labour government to separate the independent and state sectors. The direct grant scheme was abolished in 1975 and the HMC schools within the scheme became fully independent. Local authorities were ordered to cease funding places at independent schools. This accounted for over a quarter of places at 56 schools, and over half the places at 22 schools. Between 1975 and 1983 funding was also withdrawn from 11 voluntary-aided grammar schools, which became independent schools and full members of
7018-470: The Middle and Far East. The schools are typically founded in partnership with a local business person or organisation with the "home" school maintaining control of curriculum and staffing. The almost exclusive teaching of grammar ( Latin and to a lesser extent ancient Greek ) prevailed until well into the 19th century. Most schools were legally obliged to do so by the terms of their original endowment. As
7139-491: The Pacific Coast in an automobile I began to read pulp magazines, because they were cheap enough to throw away and because I never had at any time any taste for the kind of thing which is known as women's magazines. This was in the great days of the Black Mask (if I may call them great days) and it struck me that some of the writing was pretty forceful and honest, even though it had its crude aspect. I decided that this might be
7260-508: The Royal Commission on Secondary Education ) described the schools reformed by the 1868 Act as the "seven 'great endowed schools'". Public schools emerged from grammar schools established to educate pupils, usually destined for clerical orders, in Latin grammar. Thus, concerned with educating boys. The term "public" came into use because over time access to such schools was not restricted on
7381-602: The U.S. are unionized and are represented by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Although membership in the WGA is recommended, it is not required of a screenwriter to join. The WGA is the final arbiter on awarding writing credit for projects under its jurisdiction. The WGA also looks upon and verifies film copyright materials. Other notable screenwriters' unions include the Writers' Guild of Great Britain , representing screenwriters in
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#17331153147427502-545: The UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) found that 50 prominent public schools were in breach of the Competition Act 1998 through their exchange of details of planned fee increases over three academic years 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2003–04. The Independent Schools Council claimed that the investigation had been "a scandalous waste of public money". Three-quarters of HMC schools are now either partially or fully co-educational. Of
7623-661: The UK government to levy VAT on school fees, a commitment (re)made in the 1983 Labour Party election manifesto under Neil Kinnock 's leadership, and revived in 2017 by Jeremy Corbyn . In support of the case for maintaining the status quo , the Independent Schools Council published in 2022 a report which stated that the independent education sector contributed in 2021 £16.5 billion to the UK economy and generated £5.1 billion of tax revenue. The 2019 UK Conservative Party election manifesto made no mention of education outside of
7744-470: The UK, and La Guilde Française des Scénaristes, representing screenwriters in France. Minimum salaries for union screenwriters in the US are set by the Writers Guild of America . The median compensation for a first draft from a first time screenwriter is $ 100,000, while the most experienced members have a median compensation of $ 450,000. The most experienced WGA members have reported up to $ 4,000,0000 compensation for
7865-655: The actor Max Adrian , a founding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; Max's mother Mabel was a sister of Florence Thornton. Chandler was classically educated at Dulwich College , London (a public school whose alumni include the authors P. G. Wodehouse and C. S. Forester ). He spent some of his childhood summers in Waterford with his mother's family. He did not go to university, instead spending time in Paris and Munich improving his foreign language skills. In 1907, he
7986-467: The author during his lifetime. In a March 1942 letter to Blanche Knopf, published in Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler , he wrote, "The thing that rather gets me down is that when I write something that is tough and fast and full of mayhem and murder, I get panned for being tough and fast and full of mayhem and murder, and then when I try to tone down a bit and develop the mental and emotional side of
8107-495: The basis of home location, paternal occupation or status, and that they were subject to an element of public management or control, in contrast to private schools which were run for the personal profit of the owner(s). The origins of schools in England were primarily religious, although in 1640 the House of Commons invited the reformer and promoter of universal education Comenius to England to establish and participate in an agency for
8228-573: The belief that Phillip Marlowe 's office was located in Security Trust and Savings at the northeast corner of this intersection. In 1994, the Square was designated Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #597. Noirfest 's lifetime achievement award is named the Raymond Chandler Award. In 1991, Fulbright Program gave out a "Raymond Chandler Mystery Writing Award" and in 1994, they gave out
8349-461: The best man in his world and a good enough man for any world." Parker wrote that, with Marlowe, "Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious—an innocent who knows better, a Romantic who is tough enough to sustain Romanticism in a world that has seen the eternal footman hold its coat and snicker. Living at
8470-404: The case of Harrow, political sponsorship by aristocratic Whig politician James Brydges (later Duke of Chandos) played a significant role, but also, as was the case too with Rugby, an exemplary headmaster was a key factor in raising the status of the school. This phenomenon was also seen at Shrewsbury , where Samuel Butler was headmaster between 1798 and 1836. "Would you your son should be
8591-482: The children—nay, the eldest sons—of some of the best families in England have been educated." By the end of the 17th century, the London day schools St Paul's and Merchant Taylors', together with the charitable foundations of Christ's Hospital and Charterhouse, had developed an elevated "standing in popular regard". By the end of the 18th century, two local grammar schools, Harrow and Rugby, had achieved national fame. In
8712-823: The end of the Far West, where the American dream ran out of room, no hero has ever been more congruent with his landscape. Chandler had the right hero in the right place, and engaged him in the consideration of good and evil at precisely the time when our central certainty of good no longer held." Chandler was born in 1888 in Chicago, the son of Florence Dart (Thornton) and Maurice Benjamin Chandler. He spent his early years in Plattsmouth, Nebraska , living with his mother and father near his cousins and his aunt (his mother's sister) and uncle. Chandler's father, an alcoholic civil engineer who worked for
8833-717: The existing local grammar schools, had high level political patronage, and also accepted "non-local" pupils. This was "the start of a new kind of school". Elizabeth I refounded Westminster School in 1560, with new statutes, to select forty Queen's Scholars . This created a "triad" of privileged schools—Winchester, Eton and Westminster. From the 16th century onward, boys' boarding schools continued to be founded or endowed for public use. Daniel Defoe in The Compleat English Gentleman of 1728, writes of "the great schools of Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Felsted , Bishop Stortford (sic), Canterbury and others, where
8954-434: The fledgling Royal Air Force (RAF) when the war ended. After the armistice , he returned to Los Angeles by way of Vancouver, and soon began a love affair with Pearl Eugenie ("Cissy") Pascal, a married woman 18 years his senior and the stepmother of Gordon Pascal, with whom Chandler had enlisted. Cissy amicably divorced her husband, Julian, in 1920, but Chandler's mother disapproved of the relationship and refused to sanction
9075-497: The formula, but we usually got caught and sent back. To exceed the limits of a formula without destroying it is the dream of every magazine writer who is not a hopeless hack. Critics and writers, including W. H. Auden , Evelyn Waugh and Ian Fleming , greatly admired Chandler's prose. In a radio discussion with Chandler, Fleming said that Chandler offered "some of the finest dialogue written in any prose today". Contemporary mystery writer Paul Levine has described Chandler's style as
9196-562: The game!" from Henry Newbolt 's 1892 poem Vitaï Lampada and "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton", the latter popularly attributed to the Duke of Wellington . Many ex-pupils, like those from other schools, had, and still have, a nostalgic affection for their old schools ( George Orwell remembered being "interested and happy" at Eton, ) and a public school tie and an " old boy network " of former pupils were useful in advancing
9317-445: The growing area of online web series. In the silent era , screenwriters were denoted by terms such as photoplaywright , photoplay writer , photoplay dramatist , and screen playwright . Screenwriting historian Steven Maras notes that these early writers were often understood as being the authors of the films as shown, and argues that they could not be precisely equated with present-day screenwriters because they were responsible for
9438-472: The highest amounts paid to writers for spec screenplays: $ 5 million: $ 2 million: $ 1 million: Public school (United Kingdom) A public school in England and Wales is a type of fee-charging private school originally for older boys. They are "public" in the sense of being open to pupils irrespective of locality, denomination or paternal trade or profession ; nor are they run for
9559-475: The historian's dilemma: "A writer may be given screen credit for work he didn't do (as with Sidney Buchman on Holiday ), or be denied credit for work he did do (as with Sidney Buchman on The Awful Truth )." After a screenwriter finishes a project, they pair with an industry-based representative, such as a producer, director, literary agent , entertainment lawyer, or entertainment executive. The partnerships often pitch their project to investors or others in
9680-480: The last half of [the twentieth] century, what the Great American Novel was for the first half. Closet writers who used to dream of the glory of getting into print now dream of seeing their story on the big or small screen." Every screenplay and teleplay begins with a thought or idea, and screenwriters use their ideas to write scripts, with the intention of selling them and having them produced. In some cases
9801-524: The marriage. For the next four years Chandler supported both his mother and Cissy. After the death of Florence Chandler on September 26, 1923, he was free to marry Cissy. They were married on February 6, 1924. Having begun in 1922 as a bookkeeper and auditor, Chandler was by 1931 a highly paid vice president of the Dabney Oil Syndicate , but his alcoholism, absenteeism, promiscuity with female employees, and threatened suicides contributed to his dismissal
9922-407: The new one is at the foot. In his introduction to Trouble Is My Business (1950), a collection of many of his short stories, Chandler provided insight on the formula for the detective story and how the pulp magazines differed from previous detective stories: The emotional basis of the standard detective story was and had always been that murder will out and justice will be done. Its technical basis
10043-430: The nine Clarendon schools had a combined asset value of almost £2bn. Eton College is the school with the largest endowment of over £500m. Charitable status is politically controversial. The UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer in 2021 pledged to remove charitable status for fee-charging schools, a policy also of Harold Wilson , stated in the 1974 Labour election manifesto. Removal of charitable status would enable
10164-555: The nine Clarendon schools plus Cheltenham College , Christ's Hospital , and Dulwich College . In 1881 C.Kegan Paul & Co published Our Public Schools with chapters on seven schools: Eton , Harrow , Winchester , Rugby , Westminster , Marlborough , and Charterhouse . In 1893 Edward Arnold published a book entitled Great Public Schools with a chapter on each of Eton , Harrow , Charterhouse , Cheltenham , Rugby , Clifton , Westminster , Marlborough , Haileybury , and Winchester . The Bryce Report of 1895 ( Report of
10285-429: The police beforehand, saying he planned to kill himself. Chandler's personal and professional life were both helped and complicated by the women to whom he was attracted, notably Helga Greene (his literary agent), Jean Fracasse (his secretary), Sonia Orwell ( George Orwell 's widow), and Natasha Spender ( Stephen Spender 's wife). Chandler regained his U.S. citizenship in 1956, while retaining his British rights. After
10406-422: The production of a film. Sometimes they come on as advisors, or if they are established, as a producer. Some screenwriters also direct. Although many scripts are sold each year, many do not make it into production because the number of scripts that are purchased every year exceeds the number of professional directors that are working in the film and TV industry . When a screenwriter finishes a project and sells it to
10527-467: The profit of a private owner. Although the term "public school" has been in use since at least the 18th century, its usage was formalised by the Public Schools Act 1868 , which put into law most recommendations of the 1864 Clarendon Report . Nine prestigious schools were investigated by Clarendon (including two day schools , Merchant Taylors' and St Paul's ) and seven subsequently reformed by
10648-558: The promotion of learning. It was intended that by-products of this would be the publication of "universal" books and the setting up of schools for boys and girls. The English Civil War prevented any such reform. Some schools are particularly old, such as The King's School, Canterbury c. 597 , The King's School, Rochester c. 604 , St Peter's School, York c. 627 , Sherborne School c. 710 , (refounded 1550 by Edward VI ), Warwick School c. 914 , King's Ely c. 970 (once
10769-613: The proposal. It failed because it was not a high priority for either party, money was tight, there was wavering support from both public schools and local education authorities, and no consensus was reached on how to select the pupils to participate. Based on the recommendations of the Fleming Report, the Education Act 1944 , also known as "the Butler Act", did, however, establish an enhanced status for endowed grammar schools receiving
10890-524: The public, either generally, or of a particular locality, and carried on under some kind of public management or control; often contrasted with a "private school" carried on at the risk and for the profit of its master or proprietors.' In November 1965, the UK Cabinet considered the definition of a public school for the purpose of the Public Schools Commission set up that year. It started with
11011-509: The railway, abandoned the family. To obtain the best possible education for Ray, his mother, originally from Ireland, moved them to the area of Upper Norwood in what is now the London Borough of Croydon , England in 1900. Another uncle, a successful lawyer in Waterford , Ireland, reluctantly supported them while they lived with Chandler's maternal grandmother. Raymond was a first cousin to
11132-770: The role of public schools, setting up a Royal commission "to advise on the best way of integrating the public schools with the State system". The commission used a wider definition than that of the Fleming Committee. The Public Schools Commission produced two reports: the Newsom Report of 1968 entitled The Public Schools Commission: First Report covering boarding schools and the Donnison Report of 1970 entitled The Public Schools Commission: Second Report covering day schools, including also direct grant and maintained grammar schools. The report presented by John Newsom in 1968
11253-409: The same point of view as the film makers. When I first went to Hollywood a very intelligent producer told me that you couldn't make a successful motion picture from a mystery story, because the whole point was a disclosure that took a few seconds of screen time while the audience was reaching for its hat. He was wrong, but only because he was thinking of the wrong kind of mystery. Chandler also described
11374-453: The screenwriting job, typically taking on legal, financial, and other important representative roles for the screenwriter. These professional screenwriters rarely work for free. There are a legion of would-be screenwriters who attempt to enter the film industry , but it often takes years of trial and error, failure, and gritty persistence to achieve success. In Writing Screenplays that Sell , Michael Hague writes, "Screenplays have become, for
11495-621: The script and, according to producer John Houseman , Chandler concluded he could finish the script only if drunk, with the assistance of round-the-clock secretaries and drivers, which Houseman agreed to. The script gained Chandler's second Academy Award nomination for screenplay. Chandler collaborated on the screenplay of Alfred Hitchcock 's Strangers on a Train (1951), an ironic murder story based on Patricia Highsmith 's novel , which he thought implausible. Chandler clashed with Hitchcock and they stopped talking after Hitchcock heard Chandler had referred to him as "that fat bastard". Hitchcock made
11616-505: The script is based on an existing property, such as a book or person's life story, which is adapted by the screenwriter. In most cases, a film project is initiated by a screenwriter. The initiator of the project gets the exclusive writing assignment. They are referred to as "exclusive" assignments or "pitched" assignments. Screenwriters who often pitch new projects, whether original or an adaptation, often do not have to worry about competing for assignments and are often more successful. When word
11737-467: The seven boarding schools investigated by Clarendon, and in summary established and granted autonomy to new governing bodies for the seven schools and as part of that, released them from previous obligations under their founding charters to educate "boys on the Foundation" ie scholarship boys who paid nominal or no fees. The Act gave the seven schools independence from direct jurisdiction or responsibility of
11858-526: The sons of gentlemen resort in considerable numbers, and where they continue to reside, from eight or nine, to eighteen years of age. We do not give this as a definition which would have satisfied Porphyry or Duns-Scotus , but as one sufficiently accurate for our purpose. The characteristic features of these schools are, their antiquity, the numbers, and the ages of the young people who are educated at them ...". Arthur Leach , in his History of Winchester College (1899), stated: "The only working definition of
11979-500: The state maintained sector. In September 2023 the UK Labour party announced that, if elected, it planned to allow public schools to retain their charitable status (and some associated tax benefits) but did plan to charge VAT on fees and remove concessions on business rates paid to local authorities. The 19th-century public school ethos promoted ideas of service to Crown and Empire, exemplified in tropes such as "Play up! Play up! And play
12100-498: The status of charities are not totally tax exempt as they pay some business rates, VAT on procured goods and services and staff pay income tax on earnings. The public benefit that a charity is obliged to provide is not defined in law. Typically schools provide this public benefit by offering bursaries to pupils of families with limited financial means and supporting local state maintained school(s) and institutions, including allowing public access to school facilities. As of 2020
12221-426: The story. Erle Stanley Gardner could turn out a pulp story in three or four days—and turned out an estimated one thousand." His first novel, The Big Sleep , was published in 1939, featuring the detective Philip Marlowe, speaking in the first person. In 1950, Chandler described in a letter to his English publisher, Hamish Hamilton, why he began reading pulp magazines and later wrote for them: Wandering up and down
12342-420: The struggle that writers of pulp fiction had in following the formula demanded by the editors of the pulp magazines: As I look back on my stories it would be absurd if I did not wish they had been better. But if they had been much better they would not have been published. If the formula had been a little less rigid, more of the writing of that time might have survived. Some of us tried pretty hard to break out of
12463-539: The text "...comprize under the expression of Public Schools? Are we to understand only Winchester, Eton and Westminster? or are we to extend our notion, as we ought to do, to the other three great schools in the Metropolis; to Harrow, Rugby, Manchester , Wakefield and many more of equal magnitude in the North?" In 1816 Rudolph Ackermann published a book which used the term "History of the Public Schools" of what he described as
12584-485: The turn of the century. Oundle became the first school to create an engineering curriculum as well as teaching biochemistry and agriculture. There was a further expansion in public school education in the interwar years. New schools such as Rendcomb (1920), Stowe (1923), Canford (1923), Bryanston (1928) and Millfield (1935) were established. In 1942 the then President of the Board of Education Rab Butler appointed
12705-534: The use of the term has varied over time and according to context. The starting point was the contrast between a public school and private teaching (eg., provided by a hired tutor). In England and Wales schools that are called public schools are not funded from public taxation . Sydney Smith in an 1810 article published in The Edinburgh Review suggested the following. "By a public school, we mean an endowed place of education of old standing, to which
12826-546: The very lifeblood of the public school system', encapsulated the thinking of the era. The prominence of team sports prevails to the current day and is a feature by which public schools still distinguish themselves from state maintained schools. By the latter part of the 19th century 'modern' subjects such as mathematics and science featured in many schools listings in The Public Schools Yearbook . Within English law
12947-564: Was I at all a happy young man." In 1912, he borrowed money from his Waterford uncle, who expected it to be repaid with interest, and returned to America, visiting his aunt and uncle before settling in San Francisco for a time, where he took a correspondence course in bookkeeping, finishing ahead of schedule. His mother joined him there in late 1912. Encouraged by Chandler's attorney/oilman friend Warren Lloyd, they moved to Los Angeles in 1913, where he strung tennis rackets, picked fruit and endured
13068-544: Was abolished in state schools in 1986, and had been abandoned in most public schools by the time it was formally banned in independent schools in 1999 in England and Wales, (2000 in Scotland and 2003 in Northern Ireland). The system of fagging , whereby younger pupils in some schools were required to act to some extent as personal servants to the most senior boys, was phased out during the 1970s and 1980s. In September 2005
13189-474: Was also a perceptive critic of detective fiction; his " The Simple Art of Murder " is the canonical essay in the field. In it he wrote: "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be
13310-697: Was buried in Mount Hope, because he had left no funeral or burial instructions. In 2010, Chandler historian Loren Latker, with the assistance of attorney Aissa Wayne (daughter of John Wayne ), brought a petition to disinter Cissy's remains and reinter them with Chandler in Mount Hope. After a hearing in September 2010 in San Diego Superior Court , Judge Richard S. Whitney entered an order granting Latker's request. On February 14, 2011, Cissy's ashes were conveyed from Cypress View to Mount Hope and interred under
13431-443: Was conducted by means of a questionnaire sent to the schools. The description of 475 schools range from one or two paragraphs to many pages of detail. Included in the survey are the renowned nine schools which forty three years later became the subject of the 1861 Clarendon Commission . In 1828 Thomas Arnold became headmaster of Rugby School. The reforming actions he took during his fourteen years (1828–1842) of tenure established
13552-431: Was derived from an unproduced courtroom drama screenplay he had written for Universal Studios . Four chapters of a novel, unfinished at his death, were transformed into a final Philip Marlowe novel, Poodle Springs , by the mystery writer and Chandler admirer Robert B. Parker , in 1989. Parker shares the authorship with Chandler. Parker subsequently wrote a sequel to The Big Sleep entitled Perchance to Dream , which
13673-653: Was discovered among the uncatalogued holdings of the Library of Congress . The work was never published or produced. It has been dismissed by the Raymond Chandler estate as "no more than… a curiosity." A small team under the direction of the actor and director Paul Sand is seeking permission to produce the operetta in Los Angeles. Cissy Chandler died in 1954, after a long illness. Heartbroken and drunk, Chandler neglected to inter her cremated remains, and they sat for 57 years in
13794-465: Was naturalized as a British subject in order to take the civil service examination, which he passed. He then took an Admiralty job, lasting just over a year. His first poem was published during that time. Chandler disliked the servility of the civil service and resigned, to the consternation of his family, became a reporter for the Daily Express and also wrote for The Westminster Gazette . He
13915-409: Was nominated for an Academy Award . Said Wilder, "I would just guide the structure and I would also do a lot of the dialogue, and he (Chandler) would then comprehend and start constructing too." Wilder acknowledged that the dialogue which makes the film so memorable was largely Chandler's. Chandler's only produced original screenplay was The Blue Dahlia (1946). He had not written a denouement for
14036-505: Was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker ). All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America . Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He
14157-504: Was salted with quotes from the original novel. Chandler's final Marlowe short story, circa 1957, was entitled "The Pencil". It later provided the basis of an episode of the HBO miniseries (1983–86), Philip Marlowe, Private Eye , starring Powers Boothe as Marlowe. In 2014, "The Princess and the Pedlar" (1917), a previously unknown comic operetta, with libretto by Chandler and music by Julian Pascal,
14278-441: Was supportive of boarding school education and made 52 recommendations, including state funding of up to 45,000 places. No action was taken by the then Labour government (or successive administrations). The report presented by David Donnison in 1970 made 25 recommendations for England and Wales and 22 for Scotland. The commission was divided on many issues so several of the recommendations were not made with full consensus. No action
14399-399: Was taken by the incoming (1970) Conservative government but five years later the direct grant scheme was terminated by Labour. The social changes of the 1960s were felt in the public schools; the new headmaster at Oundle School noted that "student protests and intellectual ferment were challenging the status quo". These challenges later coincided with the mid-1970s recession and moves by
14520-434: Was the relative insignificance of everything except the final denouement. What led up to that was more or less passage work. The denouement would justify everything. The technical basis of the Black Mask type of story on the other hand was that the scene outranked the plot, in the sense that a good plot was one which made good scenes. The ideal mystery was one you would read if the end was missing. We who tried to write it had
14641-479: Was unsuccessful as a journalist, but he published reviews and continued writing romantic poetry. An encounter with the slightly older Richard Barham Middleton is said to have influenced him into postponing his career as writer. "I met ... also a young, bearded, and sad-eyed man called Richard Middleton. ... Shortly afterwards he committed suicide in Antwerp, a suicide of despair, I should say. The incident made
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