----- Original Message ----- From: <
Moorich2@aol.com>
> I can't say whether Chase read THE BIG SLEEP before
he wrote ORCHIDS and
you
> are right that they were published in the same year.
I will point out
that
> big hunks of THE BIG SLEEP were published as
novelettes in US magazines
prior
> to 1939 and in plenty of time for Chase to have read
them. As a writer
who
> proved to be quite a "fan" of Chandler, Hammett and
Latimer, Chase (or
Rene
> Raymond to give his real name) had incentive to seek
them out.
>
> I put the "fan" in quotes as while we may not be
able to say Raymond was
> influenced by Chandler, we can say he stole from him
and admitted to this
> plagiarism in a letter to "The Bookseller" magazine
in the UK and promised
to
> refrain from future plagiarims as well as to pay all
legal costs. The
novel
> in question was BLONDE'S REQUIEM published by
Raymond under the name
Raymond
> Marshall and in which he lifted passages from
Latimer, Hammett as well as
> Chandler.
Shameless. This was in 1946. By this time I guess his best
friend Graham Greene had told Chase he'd have to write his
own stuff now and Chase got huffy and started stealing
whatever he could lay his hands on. I haven't read BLONDE'S
REQUIEM and it looks like it's not going to be easy to find.
Sounds good, though! Chandler, Hammett and Latimer rolled
into one. Thanks for the info, Richard.
Al
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 14 Dec 2002 EST