Books

San Francisco: Arion Press, 1986. Hardcover. Fine. Hardcover. One of 425 copies plus 34 hors de commerce. Signed by Lou Stoumen, the famed photographer. Louis Clyde Stoumen (1917 – 1991), known as Lou Stoumen, was an American photographer, film director and producer. He won two Academy Awards; the first in 1957 for Best Documentary Short Subject, and the second in 1963 for Best Documentary Feature. He contributed 40 striking black and white photographs to this book, featuring a number of individuals playing the roles of the book's characters, identified in the photographer's credits, to illustrate Chandler's hard-boiled crime novel, first published in 1939, the first to feature his detective, Philip Marlowe. The introduction by Lawrence Clark Powell discusses the impact of Chandler's crime novels, and offers a brief biography. Stoumen offers a final photographer's note that states that the Arion Press proprietor, Andrew Hoyem, wanted him to bring Chandler's LA to life in a series…

The Big Sleep is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first in his acclaimed series about detective Philip Marlowe. The story is set in Los Angeles and follows Marlowe as he investigates a complex case involving blackmail, mystery, and murder, which begins with a wealthy general who is being blackmailed and needs Marlowe's help.