Detective novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) was born on this day in Chicago and raised in Ireland and England. “The swans of our childhood,” he once recalled, “were probably just pigeons.”

Best known for creating Philip Marlowe, a philosophical, wise-cracking private detective, Chandler famously advised, “When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.”

His own personality seeped into his writing, and he modeled his literary style after Alexandre Dumas, Charles Dickens, and Joseph Conrad. His gritty pulp fiction helped define film noir and inspired the 1974 classic film, Chinatown.

“When a writer writes a book, he takes nothing from anyone. He adds to what exists... There is never enough good writing to go around,” Chandler believed. “The more you reason, the less you create.”

In 1939, Chandler completed his first novel, The Big Sleep, introducing Marlowe as a sharp, solitary hero. Asked about his bachelor status, Marlowe quipped, “I’m unmarried because I don’t like policemen’s wives.” The 1946 film adaptation, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, remains iconic.

“The world never hears of its greatest men,” Chandler said. “The men it calls great are just ahead enough of the average to stand out, but not far ahead enough to be remote.”