A Mysterious Something in the Light: The Life of Raymond Chandler

by Tom Williams

The life of Raymond Chandler has long been obscured by secrets and half-truths as deceptive as anything in his novel The Long Goodbye. Now, drawing on new interviews, previously unpublished letters, and archives, Tom Williams casts a new light on this mysterious writer, a man troubled by loneliness and desertion. It was only during middle age, after his alcoholism wrecked a lucrative career as an oilman, that Chandler seriously turned to crime fiction. And his legacy—the lonely, ambiguous world of Philip Marlowe—endures, compelling generations of crime writers. In this long-awaited biography, Tom Williams shadows one of the true literary giants of the twentieth century and considers how crime writing was raised to the level of art.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Literature, Writing, History, American History, Mystery

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Tom Williams is a technology veteran with over four decades of experience leading private and public companies that profoundly altered the way we work, learn, entertain and interact.

The son of an auto mechanic and a bookkeeper, Tom grew up in Rhode Island with an interest in changing how things work. In 1968, he joined the Information Technology Department at the Community College of Rhode Island to lead in the design and development of automated grade reporting, class scheduling, and student information systems.

In 1978, the Memorex Corporation lured Tom to Silicon Valley with an offer to join its newly formed Communications Product Division as a Strategic Planner. After a five-year stint at Memorex, he concentrated his career in starting disruptive technology companies that received a number in domestic and international awards.

Besides being Chairman of the companies he founded, Tom held domestic and international Board of Directors positions, executive positions at Novell and Cisco, and is a Limited Partner in several venture capital funds. Also, Tom was a Trustee and Executive Committee member of a private school.

Today, Tom spends his time as an Independent Board Member, Strategic Advisor, speaker and author. Corporations, growth companies, startups and private equity firms engage Tom's expertise and retain him as an independent voice to gather thought leaders together to discuss and debate the impact and strategic value of technology in emerging markets that will deliver extraordinary productive and profitable outcomes.

Tom earned an MBA from Santa Clara University, a BS Business from Roger Williams University, an AS Computer Science from Community College of RI, and a Certificate in Data Processing from the Institute for Certification of Computing Processionals (ICCP). Tom also served honorably in the U.S. Army in the position of Drill Sergeant.

Tom is intrigued by the notion of providing an author’s platform that directly engages readers. One of the aspects of his novels is to include an Author’s Commentary chapter at the end of the story that clarifies the impact of the technology used in the story. He encourages readers to engage in discussions and observation on the technology referenced in his books.

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raymond Chandler never wanted to be a mystery writer, which is surprising considering how masterfully he performed within the genre. While it was never his goal to be classified as a crime fiction author, he would stretch the limitations of what could be considered a mystery novel, choosing to focus on character development and dialogue rather than strictly “whodunit”. By doing so, Chandler would present strong supporting casts, drama-heavy stories and muse on both society and life. Chandler’s Marlowe novels weren’t your average detective stories and that’s precisely why they’ve stood the test of time.

Tom Williams isn’t the first man to research and put forth a biography on Chandler. There are, in fact, no fewer than three others out there. I can’t speak for the quality and contents of the others (I haven’t read them), but I can say that while Williams is a self-professed big fan of the author, he doesn’t shy away from the more controversial aspects of Chandler’s life. Chandler’s suspected homosexuality, racism, his alcoholism and adulterous ways are all covered and are heavily scrutinized.

Also covered is Chandler’s time in Hollywood. Taking a few jobs as both a script doctor and a screenwriter, Chandler would constantly fall victim to the exceedingly high expectations he would put upon himself. He would have trouble meeting deadlines and constantly fight with management and co-workers. Adding fuel to the fire, his wife Cissy’s health would begin to decline while his alcoholism would rise to frightening levels. Despite all of this, Chandler’s unmatched talent for writing believable, natural dialogue would keep him in high demand, given chance after chance to redeem himself while consistently failing to produce.

The final few chapters are especially heartbreaking following Cissy’s death as Chandler spirals out of control. He’s rarely sober and while he’s often in and out of rehab facilities, nothing ever sticks. Romances are attempted but eventually fail as he’s never able to get over the loss of his best friend. His crippling loneliness leads to suicide attempts and cries for help before he ultimately passes away following a bout with pneumonia.

Williams spent six long years researching and writing a definitive take on Chandler’s life and it shows. I give A Mysterious Something in the Light a firm recommendation for fans of Raymond Chandler and for those looking for insight on both the movie industry and the publishing world.

Also posted @ Every Read Thing.

[Ned Thacker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having dug out Tom Hiney's 1997 "Raymond Chandler, a Biography" and had a pleasant leaf-through, I can't quite see that this new life takes us much further. Williams has done some interviews and found unpublished letters but I couldn't spot any significant new information.
The main difference seems to be that Hiney is a writer while Williams is a plodding researcher, something evident from their opening sentences. While Williams gives us a factual "Raymond Chandler was born on 23 July 1888 in the upper rooms of a small, red-brick house on Langley Avenue in Chicago, Illinois" (Just how many rooms was he born in? One's enough for most of us}, Hiney intrigues the reader with: "Raymond Chandler had different ways of remembering his childhood but the villain of the story was always the same."
Given the scarcity of information about Chandler's early years, Williams's first chapters are clouded with strings of "evidently", "no doubt" and "probably". When he takes Chandler to France, his destination seems to be Clichė City, for Paris has "art running hotly through its veins" and Zola and Flaubert "have put French literature on the map."
Williams gives an efficient guide to the Marlowe novels and Chandler's battles with Hollywood and alcohol, although I could have lived without knowing that "Farewell My Lovely" is such a tasty title because it consists of a spondee and an amphibrach.
Hiney's book is out of print but there are 91 copies available on abebooks.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent biography, very readable and as good as any of the previous biographies of Chandler. There is no doubt that Chandler was a remarkable guy, and it is intriguing to considerthe way he developed into a writer with a unique style, and to trace the pattern of his life.

[Raquel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The depth of research found in this book is often mind-blowing. I love that careful attention to detail. I read many biographies and can always tell when the author took the time and effort to leave no stone unturned in their quest for information. Some readers find the transparency of research in a biography to remove them from the narrative of the story. You get that sense a little bit at the beginning of the book but the narrative voice eventually finds its stride. This book is also the perfect example of how you can have a biography without footnotes. Nothing frustrates me more than a book with too many footnotes, it disrupts the flow of reading and often times isn’t necessary. Williams expertly weaves all the information into the narrative.

My full review here: http://www.outofthepastblog.com/2016/...

[E. Amato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really grateful for this recent biography on Chandler. It illuminates so much in his life that was murky in earlier biographies, without resorting to wildly theorizing. It's also damned entertaining and shows why Chandler is easily as interesting as any character he created or world he delineated.

[Felix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great writing & research. I found out a bunch of stuff I did not know. (I received this through a Goodreads give away)

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raymond Chandler - July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959
Though the subject of Raymond Chandler was an exciting one to my mind, I often found this book to be a little repetitive. However, the complexity of this man was quite fascinating and I did learn a lot from this biographical history. Unfortunately, many of his formative early years seem to be based more on supposition than researched facts, but perhaps there were few facts available to research. On the other hand, he was a prolific letter-writer even while young and much of the biography is based on quoted snippets from those letters. Born the son of an alcoholic, it is not surprising that though he abhorred alcoholism, he would fall into the same trap, regardless of how he felt about it.

Chandler appears to have been a lonely boy who never really completely grew up. The need to be important and powerful, the need to have close friends and a wife who loves him wholeheartedly plays as a theme throughout the book. I felt for him, a tribute to Tom Williams , who obviously 'got' him. Raymond Chandler, a world-famous author whose work lives on decades after his death, is definitely an enigma, but I feel at his core he is a little boy lost who often has no idea of his impact and yet irrationally thinks he does.

The author is not just giving nod to a list of Chandler's books, but looks at them, takes them apart and puts them back together again, using his own comments. In fact, that is exactly how Chandler himself looked and learned how to write a book. He lived in Chicago and in Los Angeles in what might be called their heyday, but was at the time gangster-ruled. Chicago had nothing on Los Angeles for corruption. Here we are not talking about Hollywood but the fast rise to wealth from oil, the collapse of morals from the Depression and the resulting city corruption. He was a product of his time, yet in his mind he lived in an earlier time.

Here, then, is the root of Ray Chandler's books and his association in writing of his character, Philip Marlowe, and later to his screenplays. I think it is honest to say his personal life revolved around three main themes: His deep love for his older wife to whom he was married until her death; his commitment to literary writing rather than grinding out corruption and murder, but with a similar theme; his alcoholism. A brilliant man, but complicated and driven.

[Markus Innocenti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This seems like a well-researched biography, but it doesn't really seek to do much more than go through the month-to-month passage of Chandler's life and steers away from fully getting to grips with the writer's art. It's quite depressing to wade through, given the detail of the subject's alcoholism and strangely pathetic love life. Despite this, my regard for Chandler's work hasn't been diminished, although Mr. Chandler will not now be invited to any 'fantasy dinner party' of mine. However, this biography did bring much of Chandler's output into better focus and helped me understand elements that I had missed in the novels.

[Guy Salvidge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid new biography of Raymond Chandler that adds to the other full length bio by Tom Hiney that I've read and Judith Freeman's The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved. I guess the main problem for me is that between the two aforementioned books and also Chandler's letters collected in The Raymond Chandler Papers, there's not a whole heap of new information here. Having said that, Williams does a good job, particularly on Chandler's early life. The ending of this book is pretty depressing but then so were Chandler's final years. Overall this is a worthy addition to the world of Raymond Chandler appreciation.

[Mark Coggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Check out my mini-review and Q&A with the author here:

http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2012/...

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched and painfully honest - a thoroughly engaging read that kept me interested right to the last page. The best biography I have read in ages.

[Brad McKenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raymond Chandler was an asshole. But, damn, could he write.

His writing is founded on a British education focused on the classics and honed by writing poetry in his younger days. He never wanted to be just a Detective Mystery writer, he always felt he had a great novel in him. From the marvelous way with words he had, I’m not that surprised to learn that. But I was surprised to learn that The Big Sleep wasn’t published until Ray was 51. That explains why I only have 7 novels to read. Well, that and his raging alcoholism.

I find it more sad than ironic that Ray could only talk about his father when he was three sheets to the wind because his mother left his father due to the old man’s own alcoholism. With this predisposition to drink, the superiority complex that came with being an English educated man in the fast-growing confines of Los Angeles, and the corruption that came with this growth, I think it’s even more impressive that Phillip Marlowe didn’t lose his integrity. The only time he really strayed from the path was in Playback, which was not only Ray’s last novel but also originally written as a screenplay during the author’s time in Hollywood. The battles Ray picked with Billy Wilder, Hitchcock, and pretty much any suit in any movie studio left me conflicted. I think that Ray’s points were valid but wonder if his curmudgeonly reputation and brisk manner caused him to lose those battles. The fact that he kept getting chance after chance to write screenplays even after burning bridge after bridge is proof that his writing was superb.

In my opinion, his astute observations of what works in the noir genre that he helped solidify, of the corruption in LA and Hollywood, and of the proper rhythm of dialog and description needed to tell his type of story are the keystones of his talent. I often wonder if I would have had more to read had he not been in WWI, had he not married his best friend’s mother, had his wife not been sickly. But then again, I think all those things helped make him who he was as a man and, in turn, as a writer. Just the same though, I wish things had ended differently for him.

When Cissy died, he was left adrift. He spent the last five years of his life drunk and hitting on (and perhaps sleeping with) any woman that showed him interest. The sexual repression he had was damn near puritanical. He seemed to be making up for lost time during these years. In the stead of finding solace in his writing, he found it in his drinking. To be fair, that was generally where he always found it. But the drunken fool he made of himself searching for someone to love was a heartbreaking end to a tortured, talented man.

If you love Chandler’s writing, I’m not sure I would recommend this book. If you’re not prepared for a miserable wretch who is arrogant and not a little misogynist and racist, it could ruin his works for you. So, I guess, I just did my part to prepare you. It was a fascinating read.

[Joseph Carano · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. This was a very thorough biography of one of the great fictional crime writers ever. It goes into his early life and education trying to figure out who he would become and why and probably over analyzes his younger years. The story goes on to his writing, business dealings, marriage, and his struggles with money and alcohol. A very informative biography but in my humble opinion, a tad bit long. Well worth the read for big time Chandler fans.

[Simon Popek · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,0 ⭐️

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific. Well written, illuminating study of a great writer. Loved the detail on the practicalities of him learning the craft.

[Joseph D'Aquisto · Rating 4 out of 5]

I nice informative read about the life of one of my favourite authors.

[Ian B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An absorbing but occasionally slightly ploddy biography of the American-Anglo-Irish crime writer (and perpetual outsider) Raymond Chandler (1888-1959). His early years are unavoidably somewhat obscure, due to a paucity of material, but as soon as Chandler arrives at his letter-writing era, the book comes to life. ‘I am terribly blunt,’ he once wrote to a magazine editor, ‘having been raised in that English tradition which permits a gentleman to be almost infinitely rude if he keeps his voice down.’ (I’ve met people like that.) The book highlights the difference in his reputation between America and Britain, and examines whether he deserves to be considered simply as a novelist rather than a crime novelist. I’ve always found it puzzling that a man educated at an English public school should have taken so readily to the mean streets of Los Angeles, so I liked Tom Williams’s emphasis on Chandler as a skilful linguist; in Chapter Six he writes:

'Dulwich [his English school] had not equipped him with the vocabulary for pulp fiction, but it had given him a facility with languages. He treated American English and pulp style like any other foreign tongue, making lists of strange slang that he found in newspapers, storing them in a notebook for later use. He came to love the new vernacular:

All I wanted when I began [writing] was to play with a fascinating new language, and trying, without anybody noticing it, to see what it would do as a means of expression which might remain on the level of unintellectual thinking and yet acquire the power to say things which are usually only said with a literary air.'

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great biography. I didn't know much about Raymond Chandler and won the book in a contest but I really enjoyed reading. Some great photos as well.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his fine biography of Chandler, "A Mysterious Something in the Light," writer, literary agent and editor Tom Williams goes beyond the author's public persona, piecing together Chandler's family history, private relationships and key episodes from his childhood that give us a clearer understanding of why the novelist became an exemplar of the hard-boiled school of writing.

He also gives a simple and straightforward explanation of how the author's experiences in the business world of Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s tilted him toward the proletarian form of detective fiction I call "red noir."

As Chandler put it himself, "The typical racketeer is only very slightly different from the business man in many of the more tricky kinds of business such as oil, real estate, sports promotion, theatrical ventures, nightclubs and hotels and restaurants."

This is the philosophy of "red noir," the anti-capitalist theme that forms the underpinning for much hard-boiled detective fiction. Briefly stated, crime is not a form of evil unto itself; it is the inevitable product of our economic system.

As Williams says, "the detective remains pure. He is one of the little people, doing his job, but up against the might of the political and criminal forces that run the city."

[Chris Bauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not typically a fan of biographies. But this one was recommended by a writer whom I trust so I figured I'd give it a try.

Williams provides remarkably detailed factual information as well as solid conjecture, backed by data, which leads the reader down some interesting paths.

Chandler was much more complex than I ever gave him credit for. From his unhappy childhood, to globe-trotting lifestyle to his battle with alcoholism he was a multi-faceted man.

I enjoyed reading how he broke into the writing business solely to make money, a somewhat more difficult task today than it was back then. His writing process, his homophobic and racist leanings and his marriage to his best friend's mother were all fascinating. The other aspect of the work I enjoyed were the mini history lessons of LA and California during the 20s. Interesting reading about that alone.

Not a great book, but a very intriguing study of one of the fathers of pulp detective fiction.

[Felix · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book if you want to peer into the tragic life of Chandler. The author does a great job of giving glimpses of Raymond's difficult struggles in which he reveals through his Id/Marlowe. To dissect Phillip Marlowe is to understand partly/mostly the man who created him. (I received this book through Goodreads Giveaway.)

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A readable but poorly-edited biography of Raymond Chandler. I regularly found repeated phrases and quotations throughout, making me think it needed going over with a red pen. Interesting to get the background on the creator of Philip Marlowe.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author's thoroughness and dedication to the topic are clear, and it's mostly a well-told tale. I felt unfortunately too little was given to Chandler's process and influences, which is what interested me most. Still, it is quite an interesting book on a fascinating man.

[Jeffrey Marks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was well researched and interesting in its look at Chandler and his works; however, I was slightly thrown by the informality of the book's tone in particular of calling the subject "Ray." Overall though a good look at a complicated man.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done bio in which i found out just how much sadder Raymond Chandler was compared to his most famous character, Phillip Marlowe. Fascinating read on a writer and what drove him to fame and ruin both.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fairly enjoyable biography of Chandler covering his place in hard-boiled crime/thriller writing. Unfortunately he didn't seem to have a very interesting life and Williams to some extent skirted around the issue of his alcoholism.

[Dwayne Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seems to be a fairly objective treatment of Chandler's life and work, especially revealing the sadness of his last years.

[Samantha Gunning]

I won this book via Goodreads First Reads Giveaway. I received a paperback copy.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! One of the best biographies that I have ever read. Please write more, Tom Williams.

[Lara Corona · Rating 4 out of 5]

kudos to the author for not shying away from pointing out sometimes Chandler's books were horribly racist and sexist (and that the man himself expressed bigotry in many interviews).