Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 March 26, 1959) was an American novelist and screenwriter. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and others, is considered to be one of the founders of the hard-boiled school of detective fiction, and his renowned fictional detective, Philip Marlowe, is considered by many to be the archetype for private detective. Raymond Chandler s first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939, and his three subsequent novels, Farewell My Lovely (1940), The Little Sister (1949), and The Long Goodbye (1953), are considered to be literary masterpieces.