Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The deadliest trap is the one you set for yourself, copy editor.

I've been on a Raymond Chandler kick recently, and the hard-boiled, hard-living, hard-to-like alkie might just have become my favorite writer of all time. Anyway, here's a glimpse of the personality behind some of the greatest American noir--and fiction--writing of all time. In this angry missive, Chandler is calling out some pesky editor who wants to unsplit some of his infinitives and expurgate some of his more colorful language. Enjoy.
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3 comments:

  1. Brian O'RourkeMay 9, 2012 at 2:54 PM

    Best line: "...when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split..."

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  2. seana grahamMay 9, 2012 at 11:37 PM

    Funny little poem, too. Glad to hear about your Chandler binging. I'm sure he'd approve of the binging part.

    (Thanks to Microsoft's Bing, that now looks an awful lot like bing-ing to me.)

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  3. Nathanael GreenMay 11, 2012 at 8:07 AM

    Oh, particularly like:

    As gay as a lark in the fragrant dark
    We'll hoist and down the tipple.

    With laughter light we'll greet the plight
    Of a hanging participle!"

    Thanks for this!

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