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Raymond Chandler, an American-British novelist and screenwriter, published 25 short stories, five novels, and a number of poems and scripts. These include the 22 short stories he wrote between 1933 and 1941. In the mid-1940s, some of the first 22 began appearing in inexpensive paperback and hardcover collections published by Avon Books and World Publishing Company. Previously he had worked as a journalist and writer—mostly for The Westminster Gazette and The Academy. In 1950, Houghton Mifflin published the hardcover collection The Simple Art of Murder, containing a dozen stories selected by Chandler and an essay on mystery stories. Eight stories that he had "cannibalized" (his term) while writing his novels were omitted at his request. After Chandler's death, these eight were published in Killer in the Rain (1964). In 1939, at the behest of the publisher Alfred A. Knopf Sr., Chandler wrote his first novel, The Big Sleep, for which he used parts of his short stories "Killer in the Rain" (1935) and "The Curtain" (1936). In 1944 Chandler was asked by Paramount Pictures to write the script for the film Double Indemnity with Billy Wilder; the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. It was the first of seven scripts Chandler wrote, although two of them were unused. (Full list...)