LOT RR Auction  /  RR Auction Quality Autograph Auction 378  / 

551

Raymond Chandler

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Raymond Chandler

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2011 Nov 09 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
TLS signed “Ray,” one page, 7.25 x 10.5, personal letterhead, August 22, 1953. In a letter to top literary agent, H. N. Swanson, regarding a copyright on the book, The Little Sister, Chandler writes, in full: “One week ago today I mailed a letter to Bernice Baumgarten asking about rights sold to Cosmo on Littler Sister. On Wednesday last I received a reply from some damn fool girl that Baumgarten was on vacation and that the secretary was holding my letter for her return. I immediately wired Brandt and Brandt that the matter was urgent, that the information must be in their files, and please wire me back collect. This morning I hear from Carl Brandt. After quoting the first chapter of Genesis (apparently to stick me for the costs) he says that North American serial rights were sold with an option to Hearst Publications to purchase British rights. He added—and this has a nice bearing on that Popular**Verdict crowd—that second serial rights were included and retained when the copyright assignment was made back to me, but that second rights were only held as a safeguard against their being used in a short time after original publication and that he had NEVER KNOWN COSMO TO REFUSE TO RELEASE THEM if an author later on wished to license same to a reprint magazine. I don’t have this copyright assignment but Houghton*Mifflin does, and Carl sent me the recording information. The same practice applies to American magazine. If we queried the first line magazines we should probably find out that this practice was standard—that the taking of second serial rights was gor [sic] protection only, that no use would ever be made of them, and that they would after a suitable interval be released on request. If you had glanced at the copyright assgnment [sic] list we sent you a short time ago, you might have noticed that Bingo was assigned by Park East. From this you might have drawn the conclusion that Park East had published it,” with Chandler adding, “ha ha!” in red ink at the conclusion. In fine condition, with some light surface and corner creases, and a few proofreading marks made in blue ballpoint.

An abridged version of the Little Sister had appeared in the April 1949 Cosmopolitan issue, preceding the first hardcover edition in England published on June 24, 1949 by Hamish Hamilton, Ltd and the US edition, released on September 26,1949 by Houghton Mifflin. Chandler had no love for Cosmopolitan and in response to the serialization, he had previously written an April 11, 1949 letter to Houghton Mifflin: “The bastardized anecdote appearing under my name in the current issue of Cosmopolitan (may their returns be the largest in history) contains words and sentences I did not write at all, dialogue I would not spew, and lacunae that are comparable to amnesia on one’s honeymoon. This is a cadaver of a book, post-mortemed by a drunken body-snatcher and stitched together by a sailmaker with delirum tremens.”

Little Sister marked Chandler’s departure from screenwriting. For years he had wanted to get out of the film industry, but the money had been too attractive. Swanson, originally a producer churning out films for RKO, had opened up a literary agency in 1934 and by 1939, he represented 80 screenwriters contracted to 20th Century Fox including Chandler, who kept up correspondence with Swanie as he continued to write novels and short stories like the fantasy Professor Bingo’s Stuff, which appeared in the June-August 1951 edition of Park East Magazine.
Sign In to Bookmark Lot