Uncommon Raymond Chandler essay contains writing, workplace ideas – KIRO 7 Information Seattle

NEW YORK – (AP) – Philip Marlowe, the most independent fictional detective, had no boss and no one to boss around. Its creator, Raymond Chandler, needed help.

“Advice to a Secretary,” a seldom-seen essay published this week in the spring issue of the literary quarterly The Strand Magazine, is ironic guide to his assistant, Juanita Messick, in the 1950s. For Chandler, who had only a small family besides his wife and a few close friends, the work was personal. His tone of voice with Messick varied from the indulgent employer to the unhappy spouse.

“Assert your personal rights at any time. You are a human being. You won’t always feel good. You will be tired and want to lie down. Say it. Do it. You will get nervous; You will want to go out for a while. Say it and do it. If you’re late for work, don’t apologize. Just give a simple explanation of why, even if it’s a silly explanation. You may have had a flat tire. You may have overslept. You could have been drunk. We’re both just human. “

Other observations from Chandler:

“I’m only demanding in the sense that I want things right. I’m not demanding in the sense that I expect people to subordinate their own lives to my whims. If you should ever feel that I am doing this, um.” God’s sake tell me. “

“I have to have order and organization from you because I lack it myself.”

The essay was discovered like a missing clue in a shoebox in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. Andrew Gulli, editor-in-chief of Strand, who has published obscure works by Chandler (“Notes To An Employer”), William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, and many others, sought to make Chandler more personal and lighthearted.

“The reason this work was published is because writers who have written works on very dark subjects are often some of the kindest and kindest people,” he said. “This work shows a softer side to an author who has been associated with a bleak worldview.”

Chandler was open enough about Messick’s whereabouts, but especially about her shorthand. He once sent her a short memo devoted solely to abuse of present participles. In “Advice to a Secretary” he points out that Messick transcribed a word incorrectly, “accept” instead of “exclude”.

“If you don’t fully understand a sentence, word, or punctuation mark, say so and get an explanation,” says Chandler. “If the explanation you get doesn’t make things clear for you, ask for another explanation. Don’t settle for less than you want. It’s never stupid to ask questions. It’s just stupid to get the answers to guess and take a chance be wrong. “

Chandler scholar Dr. Sarah Trott notes that Chandler’s decision not to give Marlowe a secretary contrasts with those like Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade and Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer. While Chandler had a warm, playful side and both the author and his wife got close to Cissy Messick, Chandler avoided such intimacy in “The Long Goodbye,” “The Big Sleep,” and other Marlowe novels.

“He was an introverted character,” Trott said in an email recently to the AP, recalling director Billy Wilder viewing him as “pissed off, pissed off, sullen”.

“The isolated lifestyle Marlowe lives is, as I can imagine, the lifestyle Chandler desires,” Trott wrote.

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[ https://strandmag.com ]