Sunday, July 10, 2011

Raymond Chandler: The Novels

Raymond Chandler is one of my favourite authors and I've been meaning to put together a gallery of covers from his books for some while. I have to admit that I don't think Chandler was best served by his British publishers. The movie tie-in covers make an interesting set, but I'd would love to have seen Chandler published by Pan or one of the other companies that did painted covers; I imagine they would have been gorgeous. Pan did publish Chandler many years later, but it was in the days of photo covers. C'est la vie.

I've thrown in a couple of extra covers at the end for the Robert B. Parker's completion of Chandler's incomplete Poodle Springs and the spin-off Perchance to Dream. I'll have a second gallery finished shortly covering the short stories and a few extras.

 

The Big Sleep

Penguin 652, 1948.
----, 2nd imp., 1949; 3rd imp., 1950; 4th imp., 1951; 5th imp., 1952; 6th imp., 1953; 7th imp., 1955.
----, 8th imp., 1959, 220pp, 2/6, [green].
----, 9th imp., 1962, 200pp, 2/6. Cover by John Sewell
----, 10th imp., 1964; 11th imp., 1966; 12th imp., 1967.
----, [ISBN 14-000652-4] 13th imp., 1971, 220pp, 6/-. Cover: photo/des. James Tormey. *MTI.
Pan Books 0330-25836-2, 1979, 189pp.

 
 
 
 
Farewell, My Lovely
Penguin 701, 1949.
----, 2nd imp., 1950; 3rd imp., 1952; 4th imp., 1954
----, 5th imp., 1956., 253pp, 2/6, [green].
----, 6th imp., 1959, 253pp, 2/6, [green].
----, 7th imp., 1961, 253pp, 3/6, [green].
----, [C701] 8th imp., 1966, 253pp, 3/6. Cover: photo/Bob Brooks.
----, [ISBN 14-000701-6] 9th imp., 1971, 253pp, 6/-. Cover: photo/des. James Tormey. *MTI.
----, [ISBN 01400701-6] 11th imp., 1975, 253pp. Cover: photo/des. Michael Farrell. *MTI.

 
The High Window
Penguin 851, 1951.
----, 2nd imp., 1952; 3rd imp., 1954.
----, 4th imp., 1956, 221pp, 2/6, [green].
----, 5th imp., 1959; 6th imp., 1961; 7th imp., 1963; 8th imp., 1967.
----, [ISBN 14-000851-9] 9th imp., 1971. *MTI.
Pan Books 0330-25685-8, 1979, 192pp. Cover: photo

 
 
The Lady in the Lake
Penguin 867, 1952, 237pp, 2/-, [green].
----, 2nd imp., 1954; 3rd imp., 1955; 4th imp., 1959, 2/6; 5th imp., 1961; 6th imp., 1966.
----, [ISBN 14-000867-5] 7th imp., 1971, 237pp, 6/-. Cover: photo/des. James Tormey. *MTI.
Pan Books 0330-25837-0, 1979, 190pp.

 
The Little Sister
Penguin 1096, 1955.
----, 2nd imp., 1957.
----, 3rd imp., 1959
----, 4th imp., 1961, 247pp, 2/6, [green].
----, 5th imp., 1966, 247pp, 5/-, [photo]. *MTI.
Pan Books 0330-25686-6, 1979, 191pp. Cover: photo

 
 
The Long Good-Bye
Penguin 1400, 1959.
----, 2nd imp., 1961.
----, [C1400] 3rd imp., 1963, 320pp, 3/6. Cover by unknown
----, [C1400] 4th imp., 1966, 320pp, 4/6. Cover: photo/Bob Brooks.
----, [ISBN 14-001400-4] 5th imp., 1971, 320pp, 7/-. Cover: photo/des. James Tormey. *MTI.
Pan Books 0330-25684-X, 1979, 285pp.

 
Playback
Penguin 1608, 1961.
----2nd imp., 1963
----, 3rd imp., 1965. Cover by Alan Spain
----, [ISBN 14-001608-2] 4th imp., 1971, 158pp, 5/-. Cover: photo/des. James Tormey. *MTI.
Pan Books 0330-26019-7, 1980, 158pp. Cover: photo

Poodle Springs, with Robert B. Parker
Futura 0708-84823-0, 1991, 268pp, £3.99. Cover by unknown

Perchance to Dream by Robert B. Parker, sequel to Raymon Chandler's The Big Sleep
Warner 0708-84987-3, 1992, 271pp, £3.99. Cover by unknown

2 comments:

  1. Wow - they are hardly the sexiest covers are they? Interestingly Chandler very much preferred the way he was published in the UK to the way he was published in America. The British, he said, saw him as a novelist where as the Americans thought him a mystery writer.

    Hamish Hamilton - part of Penguin - did do some cool covers though. About two years ago they re-released HB editions with the original covers. You can see them here http://bit.ly/lIekdk See what you think

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like those first two 'Long Goodbye' covers, and the top 'Big Sleep', Steve, but for the most part very uninspiring

    ReplyDelete

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