Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American novelist and a screenwriter. He was born in Chicago. He became a detective fiction writer after he lost a position as an oil executive.
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", was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published just seven novels during his lifetime. In the year before he died, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. He died on March 26, 1959, in La Jolla, California.
Novels.
These are the criminal cases of Philip Marlowe, a Los Angeles private investigator. Their plots follow a pattern in which the men and women who hire him reveal themselves to be as corrupt, corrupting, and criminally complicit as those against whom he is hired to protect them.