Impressive group lot of five TLSs from writer Raymond Chandler, each signed “Ray” or “Raymond Chandler,” six total pages, his personal letterhead, 7 x 9 and 8.5 x 11, dated between 1949 and 1958. The letters, all of which possess Chandler’s candid writing style, relate to travel, business matters, and his dealings with The Society of Authors, the most notable of which dates to February 7, 1951, and concerns a poor translation of his 1949 novel The Little Sister by the Italian publishing firm Mondadori, which released it as Troppo Tardi. Chandler writes, in part: “When a copy of the Italian translation came through to me I had enough of a smattering of Italian to see at once from the first few pages that there had been omissions from my text and gross mistranslations and misunderstandings in the Italian. I therefore sent the book to someone much better versed in the language than myself, and the enclosed report is the result of that. You may take it that this report is quite unimpeachable, and it seems evident that the purported translation of my book is a clear violation of the contract…In the meantime I think it should be a matter of record that the publishing house of Mondadori is capable of open violation, not only of the ethical implications of its contract but of its precise and definite undertakings in writing. Once a firm has performed like this, it is thereafter suspect in all its dealings.” Includes a copy of Chandler’s report, which begins: “I have compared TROPPO TARDI with THE LITTLE SISTER and find that the Italian version is a travesty of the original.”
Highlights from the other four letters:
January 23, 1949, to The Society of Authors: “Enclosed please find draft for my dues for 1949. I was about to write a check for the fund for something or other, but decided that I didn't know what it was for…For instance there is the FIGHTING FUND…I do not see where it is spending any money or what for and what it intends to fight…Also, there is the Pension Fund. Who gets pensioned and why? If this fund is to provide care for indigent authors, it may or may not be a project of which I should approve. It depends on the authors. Many should be liquidated early in their careers. Few are worth keeping alive to old age; among this group I include myself…What is an author after all? Over here I should say an author was a writer who has begun to take himself seriously.”
March 21, 1951, to M. E. Barber, editor of The Author: “Thank you for…your invitation to me to do a piece on The American Literary Scene…but I'm afraid I'm not now prepared to tackle the job. I was surprised to hear that THE AUTHOR pays for its material.”
January 7, 1953, to The Society of Authors: “This is to advise you that I am withdrawing from membership in the Society of Authors for reasons which may or may not be known to you, but which in short are that I regard the maintenance by the Society of a literary agency operating on commission as inconsistent with its principles and position. This is purely a personal opinion and is not shared apparently by the distinguished members.”
August 31, 1958, to Michael Gilbert: “Clissold is quite insistent that I stay out of England for a full English tax year that is, from April to April of next year. However, it would be impossible for me to stay away that long so I have been thinking of going to Jersey, from where I assume that I could pop over for a week at a time occasionally, and the plane trip is even shorter than that from Paris. What do you think of this?” In overall fine condition.
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