Dear Miker,
Chandler pub'd "Simple Art of Murder" first in 1944 (in the
_Atlantic Monthly_) and then, in revised form, in 1946, in
... crap, I'll look it up: OK, he revised it for Howard
Haycraft's anthology _The Art of the Mystery Story_,
1946.
Things get confusing after that. In 1952 Houghton Mifflin
pub's a collection of Chandler stories entitled _The Simple
Art of Murder_, which Chandler decided should NOT have the
1946 version as a preface. Instead, he put it at the end and
wrote a NEW introduction. This NEW intro subsequently gets
pub'd in Saturday Rev of Lit and elsewhere as
"The Simple Art of Murder" -- making things very very
muddled, as there are now two (three, if you count the 1944
version) essays by that name floating around under the name
"Simple Art of Murder."
For a very enlightening and cogent discussion of all the
problems regarding this essay, there is a great article by
Miranda Hickman
(2003) -- she maintains (convincingly) that Chandler rewrote
his original "Simple Art" between '44 and '46 in response to
a rather truculent letter-to-the-editor from one Mr. Anthony
Boucher. I have the Hickman article in pdf format if you want
it.
Best, Michael Sharp
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