A brilliant writer and commenter on the social mores of his generation. His work ages well, and is as readable today as it was when it was written. Like the greats, he transcends the genre, and in my opinion is one of the five great American writers. (With Faulkner, Twain, Dos Passos and Hemingway.) 

Read "The Little Sister" and discover genius. 

Master of the American Crime Novel. Had an amazing gift for character, dialogue, and insanely complex yet realistic plots. The film version of 'The Big Sleep' is one of the greatest movies of the classic era.

Probably one of the best. His stories wove there way through Los Angeles and all the streets that I grew up with. The Big Sleep is my favorite, but all his books were great.

The Big Sleep, Farewell my lovely, High Window. Classics. Philip Marlowe is to American detective stories what Sherlock Holmes is to British mystery writing. Perhaps the most ripped off writer in all crime fiction in terms of character and writing style.

The greatest of them all.

Wish he wasn't inevitably compared with Dashiell Hammett. They're very different. Chandler is always worth rereading for the humor of his dialog, the seriousness of his themes, the sense of time and timelesness.

I prefer most of his work to DH, but they are both great.