Physicians and Gumshoes: Prescription for Bad Medicine, or the Man Who Didn't Like Doctors

Raymond Chandler, the creator of legendary detective Philip Marlowe and the recipient of increasing literary admiration over the past 40 years, used numerous physicians as minor characters in his novels and short stories. The presence of physicians as minor characters in Chandler's work, though unnoticed by previous critics, is illustrative both of the writer's personal antipathy towards medical doctors and larger societal forces which left medical charlatans free to open "clinics." Chandler's own chronic health problems and those of his wife Cissy may have contributed to the writer's negative attitude toward medicine and health care, though little is known of Chandler's personal interactions with physicians prior to his death in 1959.