CHANDLER, RAYMOND. 1888-1959. Typed Letter Signed (Raymond Chandler) to B.D. Zevin of the World Publishing Company critiquing a book of poetry by Carl Sandburg

The Library of David Lloyd, Part ICHANDLER, RAYMOND. 1888-1959.
Typed Letter Signed ("Raymond Chandler") to B.D. Zevin of the World Publishing Company critiquing a book of poetry by Carl Sandburg, 1 p, 4to, La Jolla, CA, March 9, 1947, on personal letterhead, light creasing and toning.CHANDLER DESCRIBES CARL SANDBURG'S WRITING AS "CURIOUSLY STRAINED." Chandler writes this letter to B.D. Zevin of World Publishing Company, the publisher of two collections of his short stories the previous year. After apologizing for a late response to the gift of Carl Sandburg's latest poetry collection (Chandler has had the flu), he lays into the poet: "These poems are curious reading now. When they were first published, apparently they were blunt and brutal as hell. Now they seem, if anything, restrained. They have a lot of Whitmanesque blether [sic] about man-child and woman-child etc. which seems curiously strained, like a pulp writer trying to achieve force by the use of harsh words instead of harsh things...." Realizing he has himself been a pulp writer and might be open to such criticism, Chandler writes, "Once in a while I find it in my old stories, but I don't think I put it there. Editors took a lot of liberties with me in those days."