RAY CHANDLER

Chandler was always a classy writer, and his correspondence should be made required reading not just for writers' workshops but for various Nobel laureates of recent years, who strike me as utterly deprived of the common sense without which they are destined to the world of coteries.

In 1949 he wrote as follows:

I have always thought it one of the charms dealing with publishers that if you start talking about money, they retire coldly to their professional eminence, and if you start talking about literature, they immediately yank the dollar sign before your eyes.

I would remind younger readers that in 1949 publishers could still read and write.