…saw The Big Sleep on Turner Classic Movies last night (the 1946 Howard Hawks version) and was mesmerized, not just by Bogart and Bacall, but by the presence of a rare book dealer at the center of the plot. It struck me as significant somehow that Chandler used a book dealer–that in the 30’s and 40’s this effectively signaled an operation that was at once highly cultured, mysterious, and lucrative, with ominous overtones of skullduggery at the same time. Surely Dr. Rosenbach helped to shape this image, especially in the 20’s and 30’s when the company was most successful and most in the public eye. …also the interiors of the Sternwood house seem to reflect Philip R’s tastes.
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The idea of Rosenbachian connections with the rare books dealer in the movie is such a fiction that I think it actually works….It made me laugh anyway. You should screen the movie..or better yet commission a local artist to re-tool the Big Sleep with the Rosenbachs cast in the part and put it on at Inter-Act. I’d be there in a minute. Congrats on your blog btw. I had no idea.