Rare Raymond Chandler essay includes writing, office tips
Philip Marlowe, the most self-reliant of fictional detectives, had no boss and no one to boss around. His creator, Raymond Chandler, needed some help.
“Advice to a Secretary,” a rarely seen essay published this week in the spring issue of the literary quarterly The Strand Magazine, is a wry set of instructions for his assistant in the 1950s, Juanita Messick. For Chandler, who had little family beyond his wife and few close friends, work was personal. His tone with Messick varied from indulgent employer to hapless spouse.
“Assert your personal rights at all times. You are a human being. You will not always feel well. You will be tired and want to lie down. Say so. Do it. You will get nervous; you will want to go out for a while. Say so, and do it. If you get to work late, don’t apologize. Just give a simple explanation of why, even if it is a silly explanation. You may have had a flat tire. You may have overslept. You may have been drunk. We are both just people.”
More of Chandler’s observations:
“I am only exacting in the sense that I want things right. I am not exacting in the sense that I expect human beings to subordinate their own lives to my whims. If you should ever feel that I am acting that way, for God’s sake tell me so.”
“I must have order and organization from you, because I lack it myself.”
The essay was discovered, like a missing clue, in a shoebox at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian library. Strand managing editor Andrew Gulli, who has published obscure works by Chandler (”Notes To An Employer”), William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and many others, was anxious to show Chandler in a more personal and light-hearted way.
“The reason for publishing this work is that often writers who have written works that have very dark themes are among the most friendly and benign people around,” he said. “This work shows a softer side to an author who has been associated with a bleak worldview.”