Raymond Chandler's Typewriter, Scarf, and Unpublished Fantasy Stories to Auction

The largest archive of Raymond Chandler’s unpublished works to come to auction will go under the hammer at Doyle including his favourite typewriter, inscribed books, original manuscripts, assocation copies, letters, and ephemera such as his scarf.

Included in the Rare Books, Autographs & Maps auction on December 6 will be items from The Jean Vounder-Davis Collection of Raymond Chandler. Vounder-Davis (then Fracasse) was Chandler's personal secretary as well as fiancé and muse.

Leading the sale with an estimate of $60,000 - $80,000 is an 800-page collection of typed (mainly in black but also in purple) and hand-annotated unpublished drafts of fantasy stories begun by Chandler in the 1920s. These include The Disappearing Duke, The Rubies of Marmelon, and The Carsbrook Mystery.  

Chandler's 1953 Olivetti Studio 44 portable typewriter in its red original travel case and with keys which were probably special ordered by Chandler to include foreign accent marks is also among the lots. It was used to write his 1957 novel, Playback. Chandler had earlires worked on an Underwood, but described the Olivetti 44 as "far superior to anything we turn out in America" and "put together like an Italian racing car" (estimate: $10,000 - $20,000).