In 1932, the cellar of the Depression, Chandler was fired. He was forty-four, with a sixty-two-year-old wife and a drinking problem. Fleeing to Seattle, he lived with army buddies, and then "wandering up and down the Pacific coast, i began to read pulp magazines" he wrote : "This was in the great days of Black Mask and it struck me that some of the writing was pretty forceful and honest, even though it had it's crude aspect. I decided that this might be a good way to learn how to write fiction and get paid a small amount of money at the same time".
excerpt from
The Life of Raymond Chandler
Frank MacShane
1976
