Raymond Chandler, creator of Phillip Marlowe and author of some of the best dialogue ever written in America, was an inveterate and vivid letter writer. This book, consisting mainly of letters from Chandler to his friends, contains some of his pithiest writing --about the technique of the mystery story, Hollywood, television, publishers, cats, literary agents and many other topics. Shrewd, witty, occasionally cantankerous, Chandler's writing always makes for good reading. Besides the selection of letters the book contains the first four chapters of The Poodle Springs Story on which he was at work when he died in 1959.