Most of you probably already know this, but for those who
aren't aware
of the gradual development of Marlowe through Chandler's
series
characters in the pulp magazines, here's a run-down:
MALLORY
Chandler's first PI character lasted only two stories,
"Blackmailers
Don't Shoot" (*Black Mask* 12/33) and "Smart-Aleck Kill"
(*BM* 7/34).
Mallory, whose stories were told in the third person, was a
Chicago
operative who came to Hollywood for one case, and stayed for
one more.
The format (third person) and background (business in
Chicago)
differentiated him from Chandler's later series
characters.
CARMODY
Carmody made his debut in "Finger Man" (*BM* 10/34),
Chandler's third
published story. Carmody was Marlowe virtually
fully-developed, an
LA-based PI who told his own stories in the first person.
The other
Carmody stories are "Killer in the Rain" (*BM* 1/35), "The
Man Who
Liked Dogs" (*BM* 3/36), "Goldfish" (*BM* 6/36), "The
Curtain" (*BM*
9/36), and "Try the Girl" (*BM* 1/37).
Two of the Carmody stories, "Finger Man" and "Goldfish" were
reprinted
in *TSAM* with the name Marlowe inserted. The others were
combined
and expanded (to use Chandler's term, "cannibilized") into
Marlowe
novels. Many of the supporting characters who would appear
in the
Marlowe novels, DA's Investigator Bernie Ohls and Sheriff's
Lt.
"Violets" M'Gee, first appeared in Carmody stories.
Purists will note that the character in "Finger Man" and
"Killer in
the Rain" was not called Carmody, but was an anonymous
first-person
narrator, like the Continental Op. However, since the
character in
"Goldfish," who *is* called Carmody, recalls events from
"Finger Man,"
it's reasonable to conclude that the anonymous character in
those
first two stories is also Carmody.
Carmody, like Mallory, and also like later PI characters
such as
Spenser, Streeter, and Nebraska, had only one name. However,
for
reasons I'll go into in another post, he is often
erroneously
identified as "Ted Carmody."
JOHN DALMAS
When *Dime Detective* tried to woo Chandler (and several
other *BM*
writers) away from *BM*, they asked him to create a new
series
character sho would appear exclusively in *DD*. Chandler
didn't go
that far. He just changed Carmody's name to John Dalmas and
began
publishing his stories in a new venue.
Dalmas first appears in "Mandarin's Jade" (*DD* 11/37), and
returns in
"Red Wind" (*DD* 1/38), "Bay City Blues" (*DD* 6/38), "The
Lady in
the Lake" (*DD* 1/39), and "Trouble Is My Business" (*DD*
8/39). Two
of the Dalmas stories were reprinted as Marlowe stories in
*TSAM*.
The rest were, like the uncollected Carmody yarns,
"cannibilized" into
Marlowe novels.
By 1939, Chandler published *The Big Sleep*, expanded from
"Killer in
the Rain" and "The Curtain" (with, as has been noted
earlier, a brief
gambling sequence lifted from "Finger Man"), and the
character became
Marlowe.
Longish post, I know, but I love to show off my erudition. -
Jim
Doherty
--UNS_gsauns2_3045926314--
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