In a recent post about Chandler EJM Duggan noted:
"His novels are re-workings of pre-existing stories which
have been bolted
together . . . Chandler referred to this process as
'cannibalization'.
Some of the Penguin editions of the short story collections
have
introductory essays which specify which short stories have
been reworked
into which novels."
"Killer in the Rain" (*Black Mask* 1/35) and "The Curtain"
(*BM* 9/36)
were expanded and incorporated into *The Big Sleep*. "The Man
Who Liked
Dogs" (*BM*, 3/36), "Try the Girl" (*BM*, 1/37), and
"Mandarin's Jade"
(*Dime Detective*, 11/37) were expanded and incorporated into
*Farewell,
My Lovely*. "Bay City Blues" (*DD*, 6/38) and "The Lady in
the Lake"
(*DD*, 1/39) were expanded and incorporated into *The Lady in
the Lake*.
Chandler's final pulp story, "No Crime in the Mountains"
(*Detective
Story*, 9/41) is often listed as a another source for *The
Lady in the
Lake*, but, while it shares a rural setting with both the
short and long
versions of *LITL*, and, like them, has a clorful rustic
policeman as a
character, I don't think Chandler considered it to have been
cannibilized.
Since the rural setting and cop already existed in the short
story
version of *LITL*, Chandler didn't have to cannibilize "No
Crime" to get
those elements into the novel-length version. Moreover,
Chandler had, by
most accounts, already started on the novel-length version
before writing
"No Crime." If anything, he borrowed those elements from
*LITL* for "No
Crime" rather than the other way around. Plotwise, "No Crime"
has nothing
in common with either the short or long version of *LITL*.
Finally,
Chandler didn't want his cannibilized stories reprinted, and,
with one
exception, none were during his lifetime. However, he did
consider
including "No Crime" in his *TSAM* collection. He rejected
it, not
because it was cannibilized, but because he thought the Nazi
spy plot made
it dated.
All the stories listed above were collected in the posthumous
volume
*Killer in the Rain and Other Stories* sometime in the
mid-60s. - Jim
Doherty
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