A Collection of Raymond Chandler Maps

I'm not really a fan of detective novels so all I previously knew about Raymond Chandler is from the Robyn Hitchcock song "Raymond Chandler Evening". The pavements are all wet, there's a body on the rails, he's not the reassuring type, etc. I've since learned that his work is so geographically detailed that it has inspired at least three maps of Los Angeles.

The above map, titled "Shamus Town" refers to the author's use of "Shamus" to mean cop or sometimes detective. This seems to be just a pictorial map from that era with a different title block. Originally drawn by Karl M. Leuschner, it was published in 1932 by Metropolitan Surveys of Los Angeles. Then modified to be a "Raymond Chandler Mystery Map" in 2014 by Loren Latker who runs the Shamus Town web site dedicated to Chandler. I have not found anything different other than the title. The original can be seen here via LA Magazine. The original can be seen here via LA Magazine. Here is the title block.

The second map is from Aaron Blake Publishers, 1985-1987.

It features blow-up circles for areas covered in the novels: Downtown, Hollywood, Santa Monica (sometimes aliased as Bay City), Lake Arrowhead and Mexico. 

There is a number key on the right listing locations by book. Some addresses are in italics suggesting his desire to disguise locations. These are listed after the actual locations. The map is "thoroughly researched" but "some places no longer exist, others never existed ... the exact placement of still others remains debatable."

These bubbles allow the size of important areas to be enlarged but even within the bubbles there are major distortions like placing Malibu immediately next to Santa Monica on a straight coastline. I like the electric look of the Beverly Hills area that connects the Hollywood and Santa Monica bubbles. The Shamus Town site has a nice feature where you can click on a section of the map and get both a blow-up of that area and the relevant text from the sidebar.
 

More recently historian Kim Cooper collaborated with Herb Lester Associates in the U.K. to create this "guide to Chandler's world and that of his noble alter-ego, the private detective Philip Marlowe. It mixes locations from the books, the films and Chandler’s personal life. There’s the crummy dive where Moose Malloy went looking for Velma (Farewell, My Lovely); the actual lounge where Marlowe and Terry Lennox ordered gimlets (The Long Goodbye); the top-floor suite where oil executive Chandler got his priceless education in how a dirty, sun-drenched city really operated. It’s an insider's guide to the city Chandler knew, and can still be visited today."

It can be purchased here and more details about the map are available on Electric Lit. Here is a not much higher resolution detail via heflinreps.