Raymond Chandler

The great Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami once translated The Great Gatsby for Japanese readers. In Columbia University Press’ In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What It Means anthology, you can read an essay he wrote about translating the book:

"When someone asks, “Which three books have meant the most to you?” I can answer without having to think: The Great Gatsby, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, and Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye."

A 15-year-old Charles Ardai wanted to interview Isaac Asimov for a magazine article about a new videogame based on the latter’s novel Robots of Dawn. Ardai called up the science-fiction writer’s publisher, Doubleday, and said, “I’d like to interview Isaac Asimov for an article about his new video game.”

“That’s great, but we can’t give out his number,” the Doubleday employee replied.

“No, no, he gave me his phone number,” bluffed Ardai. “But something got spilled on it and I just can’t read it.”

Little, Brown and Company's new imprint devoted to publishing suspense fiction now has a name: Mulholland Books, taken from Mulholland Drive, a winding stretch of road in the Hollywood Hills. "Its hairpin turns, sharp cliff faces and breathtaking views of Los Angeles have long made it synonymous with drama and suspense," stated Little, Brown, a division of Hachette Book Group, in a press release announcing the name of the new imprint. "The mysteries of Mulholland have inspired countless novels, films and works of art, from the classic mysteries of Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain to the voices of James Ellroy, Michael Connelly, Michael Mann and David Lynch."

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