Collecting Raymond Chandler

Tom Congalton

Chandler's first four novels in fine jackets The Big Sleep (1939), Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The High Window (1942), and The Lady in the Lake (1943), are the book collecting equivalent of big game. However, while in the past, I would have said that a collector's patience might be rewarded, as nice copies would occasionally surface (even though they would command a premium), increasingly (or I guess decreasingly) we have either not been seeing jacketed copies at all, or have seen them in compromised condition. This has had the effect of elevating copies of his later works, which can occasionally be found, such The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, and Killer in the Rain into hot commodities, and I suspect this trend will continue.

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