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DRAGNET: Earl Derr Biggers/Charlie Chan

We collect here references to Charlie Chan and/or his creator from fiction and non-fiction works.
They are sorted by copyright date.

Reference Citation

The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler, 1939
FICTION
1. [Philip Marlowe requests a bookstore clerk to descripe Arthur Gwynn Geiger to him] In his early forties, I should judge. Medium height, fattish. Would weigh about one hundred and sixty pounds. Fat face, Charlie Chan moustache, thick soft neck. Soft all over. Well dressed, goes without a hat, affects a knowledge of antiques and hasn't any. Oh, yes. His left eye is glass.
2. A cream colored coupe stopped in front of the store and I caught a glimpse of the fact face and the Charlie Chan moustache as he dodged out of it and into the store. 3.

Masterpieces of Mystery: Super Sleuths, edited by Ellery Queen, Davis Publications, 1976: Why Charlie Chan Does Not Appear in This Volume''
ANTHOLOGY, FICTION
Editor's Note: Charlie Chan is one of the very few world-famous detectives of fiction who have never appeared in short stories written by their creators. For example, Dashiell Hammett wrote short stories about Sam Spade and the Continental Op, but he never wrote a short caper about wisecracking Nick and Nora Charles; and S. S. Van Dine wrote novels about Philo Vance, but never a short exploit aobut his sophistic and sophisticated dilettante-detective.
We remember corresponding, back in the old ''Mystery League'' days, with Earl Derr Biggers, creator of Charlie Chan, and asking him - indeed, pleading with him - to write at least one Charlie Chan short adventure for posterity. But Mr. Biggers replied that if he could hit upon a really satisfactory short-story idea for Chan he would not squander it on 6000-7000 words, he would expand the idea to a 60,000-to-70,000 word novel. It was an argument we could not demolish. LIke his beloved little Charlie, Mr. Biggers was a practical man. Nevertheless, readers the world over will always regret that Earl Derr Biggers failed to leave us a single short story about the Confucious-minded, Chinese-Hawaiian-American folk hero.

Marquand: An American Life, Millicent Bell, Little, Brown and Company, 1979
NON-FICTION
[John P. Marquand and his wife visit Hawaii in 1931] Marquand noted with more detached amusement the kamaaina's (oldtimer's) condescension to the malihini, and the general affectation of interlarding everyday speech with Hawaiian words. ''When they say they are through with anything they say they are 'pau.' If they want you to hurry, they say 'wicki-wicki.' If someone is weak in the head, they say he is 'poopooli.' But why go on? You can read it all in the works of Earl Derr Biggers...''

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Reference	Citation
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler, 1939 FICTION	1. [Philip Marlowe requests a bookstore clerk to descripe Arthur Gwynn Geiger to him] In his early forties, I should judge. Medium height, fattish. Would weigh about one hundred and sixty pounds. Fat face, Charlie Chan moustache, thick soft neck. Soft all over. Well dressed, goes without a hat, affects a knowledge of antiques and hasn't any. Oh, yes. His left eye is glass. 2. A cream colored coupe stopped in front of the store and I caught a glimpse of the fact face and the Charlie Chan moustache as he dodged out of it and into the store. 3.
Masterpieces of Mystery: Super Sleuths, edited by Ellery Queen, Davis Publications, 1976: Why Charlie Chan Does Not Appear in This Volume'' ANTHOLOGY, FICTION	Editor's Note: Charlie Chan is one of the very few world-famous detectives of fiction who have never appeared in short stories written by their creators. For example, Dashiell Hammett wrote short stories about Sam Spade and the Continental Op, but he never wrote a short caper about wisecracking Nick and Nora Charles; and S. S. Van Dine wrote novels about Philo Vance, but never a short exploit aobut his sophistic and sophisticated dilettante-detective. We remember corresponding, back in the old ''Mystery League'' days, with Earl Derr Biggers, creator of Charlie Chan, and asking him - indeed, pleading with him - to write at least one Charlie Chan short adventure for posterity. But Mr. Biggers replied that if he could hit upon a really satisfactory short-story idea for Chan he would not squander it on 6000-7000 words, he would expand the idea to a 60,000-to-70,000 word novel. It was an argument we could not demolish. LIke his beloved little Charlie, Mr. Biggers was a practical man. Nevertheless, readers the world over will always regret that Earl Derr Biggers failed to leave us a single short story about the Confucious-minded, Chinese-Hawaiian-American folk hero.
Marquand: An American Life, Millicent Bell, Little, Brown and Company, 1979 NON-FICTION	[John P. Marquand and his wife visit Hawaii in 1931] Marquand noted with more detached amusement the kamaaina's (oldtimer's) condescension to the malihini, and the general affectation of interlarding everyday speech with Hawaiian words. ''When they say they are through with anything they say they are 'pau.' If they want you to hurry, they say 'wicki-wicki.' If someone is weak in the head, they say he is 'poopooli.' But why go on? You can read it all in the works of Earl Derr Biggers...''