Epic Bookshelf: Daylight Noir

We go west,” she said, “through the Beverly Hills and then father on.”
I let the clutch in and drifted around the corner to go south to Sunset.
Dolores got one of her long brown cigarettes out.
“Did you bring a gun?” she asked.

I have always had a thing for Los Angeles. Not modern L.A. Old school, Raymond Chandler era L.A. Especially Beverly Hills. Which I like a LOT, even now. Particularly when I am dining at La Dolce Vita or drinking in the lobby bar of the almost inordinately swanky Beverly Hilton. Or doing both at Morton's on Melrose, while it lived.

I have never placed a volume on the Epic Bookshelf without having read it, but I am doing so now. Photographer Catherine Corman has put together what appears to be a marvelous selection of black and white photos of L.A. based upon Chandler's books. The Paris Review currently has an Epic piece by Jonathan Lethem integrating Corman's photos with Chandler's text. A sample from Lethem's article is found above. Ms. Corman's web site for the book has a wide selection of samples of what we will find when it is released on October 31. I plan on having my own copy of Daylight Noir on that very day. You will find me reading it at the Beverly Hilton bar. Bring a gun.