CHANDLER, Raymond. The Little Sister. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1949.
8vo. Original red cloth with blue sword illustration to front board and blue lettering to spine with rough edge pages, with original illustrated dustjacket by Boris Artzybasheff; pp. [viii], 245, [3]; light indentation to head and tail of spine and foxing to top and foredge, browning to endpapers; bright front panel of dustjacket with partially repaired marginal loss and short tears; "The Holliday Bookshop" label stamped to rear pastedown; a very good copy.
First American edition.
"…a big hard-boiled city with no more personality than a paper cup".
The Little Sister is the riveting fifth instalment in the case of famous private investigator, Philip Marlowe, and the first novel Raymond Chandler wrote after his stint as a screenwriter for Paramount. It is fascinating in its fictionalisation of his life and experiences in Hollywood, as well as the way it exemplifies his disillusionment with the film industry and Los Angeles culture. Specifically, his contempt for Billy Wilder who was his writing partner on the 1944 adaptation of Double Indemnity.
In a letter to the critic James Sandoe, Chandler was reported to have said: "The Little Sister was written in a bad mood".
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