Raymond Thornton Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888. He worked as an oil company executive until losing his job during the Great Depression. At age 44 in 1932, he turned to writing detective fiction, publishing his first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", in Black Mask magazine in 1933. Chandler published his first novel, The Big Sleep, in 1939, which became the foundation of his literary reputation. Over his lifetime, he published seven novels in addition to numerous short stories. His work became highly successful in other media, with all but one of his novels adapted into motion pictures, some multiple times. Chandler died in La Jolla, California in 1959 at age 70.