Raymond Chandler was a novelist that became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive in the Great Depression. His first novel is considered a definitive noir classic, The Big Sleep, and was made into a Hollywood Film Noir by Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart, as the detective Phillip Marlowe, and Lauren Bacall, as the femme fatale Vivian Rutledge. Roger Ebert wrote of the movie “it is one of the great films noir, a black-and-white symphony that exactly reproduces Chandler's ability, on the page, to find a tone of voice that keeps its distance, and yet is wry and humorous and cares.” 

Chandler went on to write the novels Farewell My Lovely, The Little Sister, and The Long Goodbye. The Long Goodbye especially is considered to be a masterpiece. Chandler in a letter to a friend called the novel “my best book.” This novel and its various film adaptations went on to inspire a generation of noir artists, including Theo, who titled one of his paintings after the book. 

Dashiell Hammettwas an American author of detective novels and short stories. He created the famous detective character, Sam Spade, in The Maltese Falcon, who like Phillip Marlowe was also played by Humphrey Bogart in the film adaptation. Hammett is widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time. The New York Times described him as “the dean of the hard boiled school of detective fiction.” He also wrote Red Harvest, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man,all regarded as definitive and inspirational examples of noir detective fiction.