I frankly doubt that Raymond Chandler and Howard Browne were
ever big drinking buddies even though during a period they
lived close to each other. I have read various Browne memoirs
and at one or two conventions heard him discuss this period.
Now that I think of it, we exchanged a couple of letters. I
do not recall mention of any particular closeness to Chandler
at any time. Browne did buy a Chandler story for Fantastic
when Chandler was experimenting with fantasy. That was almost
certainly through an agent.
Browne did closely copy the Chandler model for his "Halo"
novels and that may have annoyed Chandler. In the
introduction to INCREDIBLE INK (in my memory the most
complete of his various memoirs), he recounts one time he met
Chandler:
"I met Ramond Chandler at the Overseas Press Club in New
York--my editor at Simon &b Schuster, Leigh (sic) Wright,
had taken me there and she introduced me. He was a little
tipsy (I guess he was born with a glass in his hand), and I
said, 'Mr. Chandler, it's a pleasure to meet you--I've been
making a living off you for years.'"
'So few have the grace to admit it,' was his reply."
That does not sound to me like they were old buddies. It
would have been in the 1950s when Lee Wright was Browne's
editor on both THIN AIR and THE TASTE OF ASHES. The Overseas
Press Club must have been a regular stop by Chandler because
others have mentioned meeting him there. A further aside, Lee
Wright
(who also may have been born with a drink in her hand),
figures in many such stories as she knew everyone and was at
the center of many such stories. She holds a special place in
my heart as one of the final acts in a long career she bought
my first novel on the basis of a fragment and an
outline...despite having no memory of meeting me and
insisting I send it to her while jerking on my tie to
punctuate her interest. But that's another story.
My guess is that Chandler was aware of the Halo novels and
didn't care that much for the flattery of imitation and
retained no memory of meeting Browne and hearing his
acknowledgement. Whether he did or not, his irritation at
imitators is understandable regardless of the quality of
work.
Browne never hid his imitations. He also met Edgar Rice
Burroughs and sent Burroughs his first novel WARRIOR OF THE
DAWN. ERB sent him a note saying he had read WARRIOR and
"regarded it as one of the best books I ever wrote."
I'll close by saying that I intend on rereading Chandler
novels soon. The last time I did so, I thought highly of them
but all things considered I preferred Hammett. I'll have a
different goal in this rereading. While certainly Chandler's
body of work is superior, I am curious if any single novel by
him equals Browne's THE TASTE OF ASHES. I know this will
cause teeth to grind out there but right now I consider ASHES
a better novel than any individual Chandler novel.
Richard Moore
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