Dec 6, 2024 10:00 EST
Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
690
Chandler mentions Humphrey Bogart and The Big Sleep
Estate / Collection: The Jean Vounder-Davis Collection of Raymond Chandler
CHANDLER, RAYMOND
Typed letter signed with mention of Humphrey Bogart and The Big Sleep. London: 31 August 1958. One page letter written on Chandler's personal stationery with a London address, addressed to Vincent [Fracasse] and signed "Ray" in ink. 9 x 7 inches (22.5 x 18 cm). A strip of masking tape obscures a paragraph (5 lines of text), usual folds, light handling creases.
A letter written from Raymond Chandler while visiting London in summer 1958 to Vincent Fracasse, Jean Fracasse's son, who receives the letter while visiting his mother's homeland of Australia. Chandler, missing Jean and her children, asks for "some idea of how you live - what sort of house you life in and the little daily things that make up life." Chandler also thanks Vincent for offering to write a review of The Big Sleep and offers the following, a revealing comment about the novel: "it was not the most coherent of my books. In fact, when they were making the picture at Warner's Howard Hawks, the director, and Humphrey Bogart sent me a wire asking whether the chauffeur had committed suicide or been murdered, and I had to answer that I didn't know."
Sold for $4,480
Estimated at $600 - $800
Includes Buyer's Premium
Estate / Collection: The Jean Vounder-Davis Collection of Raymond Chandler
CHANDLER, RAYMOND
Typed letter signed with mention of Humphrey Bogart and The Big Sleep. London: 31 August 1958. One page letter written on Chandler's personal stationery with a London address, addressed to Vincent [Fracasse] and signed "Ray" in ink. 9 x 7 inches (22.5 x 18 cm). A strip of masking tape obscures a paragraph (5 lines of text), usual folds, light handling creases.
A letter written from Raymond Chandler while visiting London in summer 1958 to Vincent Fracasse, Jean Fracasse's son, who receives the letter while visiting his mother's homeland of Australia. Chandler, missing Jean and her children, asks for "some idea of how you live - what sort of house you life in and the little daily things that make up life." Chandler also thanks Vincent for offering to write a review of The Big Sleep and offers the following, a revealing comment about the novel: "it was not the most coherent of my books. In fact, when they were making the picture at Warner's Howard Hawks, the director, and Humphrey Bogart sent me a wire asking whether the chauffeur had committed suicide or been murdered, and I had to answer that I didn't know."
Auction: Rare Books, Autographs & Maps, Dec 6, 2024
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Auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on December 6, 2024
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Consignments Are Currently Being Accepted for Future Auctions
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We Invite You to Contact Us for a Complimentary Auction Evaluation of Your Books, Autographs & Maps
NEW YORK, NY -- Doyle held a successful auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps onDecember 6, 2024 showcased is a wonderful diversity of Americana, maps, autographs, early books and landmarks of literature and science.
Highlighting the sale was the first edition of Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus from 1670 that soared to $70,350. Spinoza’s Tractatus is his only work published during his lifetime and remains his most significant. It presents a clear theory of natural right, asserting that the love of God leads to love for others. The state exists to ensure liberty, not oppression, with justice, wisdom, and toleration as key. Influential to thinkers like Blake and Goethe, it shaped Romanticism.
The Jean Vounder-Davis Collection offered the largest trove of unpublished Raymond Chandler stories, poetry, letters, books and personal artifacts to come to market. Best known for his Philip Marlowe detective novels including The Big Sleep (1939) and Farewell, My Lovely (1940) and as screenwriter of film noir classics such as Double Indemnity (1944) and The Blue Dahlia (1946), Raymond Chandler is considered one of the top writers in the hardboiled fiction genre alongside Dashiell Hammett and James Cain. Held for decades, the archive belonged to Jean Fracasse [later Vounder-Davis] who was first hired in January 1957 as Chandler's personal secretary but quickly became his close friend, confidant, fiancé and muse to whom he dedicated his last book.
We Invite You to Auction!
Consignments are currently being accepted for future auctions. We invite you to contact us for a complimentary auction evaluation. Our Specialists are always available to discuss the sale of a single item or an entire collection.
For information, please contact Peter Costanzo at 212-427-4141 ext 248, Edward Ripley-Duggan at ext 234, or Noah Goldrach at ext 226, or email Books@Doyle.com
