Which author created the detective Philip Marlowe?

Which author created the detective Philip Marlowe? Raymond Chandler created Philip Marlowe, the Los Angeles private detective who became one of hard-boiled fiction's defining characters. Marlowe first appeared in Chandler's 1939 novel The Big Sleep, after related short-story characters had helped shape his personality and methods.

Marlowe is sharp-tongued, independent, and generally guided by a personal moral code. He works in a corrupt urban world filled with wealthy clients, criminals, police pressure, and deceptive femmes fatales. Chandler's atmospheric descriptions and witty dialogue helped transform the private-eye story into a major form of American literary crime fiction.

Chandler drew on the pulp tradition associated with magazines such as Black Mask, but he insisted that Marlowe was not simply copied from one real person. He said the character “grew out of the pulps,” evolving as Chandler moved from short stories to novels.

Marlowe appears in seven completed Chandler novels, including Farewell, My Lovely and The Long Goodbye. Dashiell Hammett created Sam Spade, while Ross Macdonald created Lew Archer, two detectives often mentioned alongside Marlowe.