title: Career in C Major and Other Fiction
author:  James M. Cain 
description: Cain (18921977) is best known for The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce, in which lower-class characters suffer answered prayers. After years of writing highly colored features and stories for various journals, Cain became a star with Postman in 1934. He disliked the "hard-boiled" label and his authorized biographer Hoopes subtitles his introduction "Was the 'Tough Guy' Really a Humorist at Heart?" On the basis of these previously uncollected pieces, the reader can give only a qualified assent. The "dialogues," satires about state and local government which he wrote for the American Mercury, have a bitter edge, and the "light fiction" pieces, mainly about Hollywood, are slight indeed. The title novella, about a contractor who becomes an opera singer, is rather funny but segues into a sentimental ending that rings false. Cain does show a deep interest in and knowledge of music, proving that he wasn't completely a tough guy. 12,500 first printing. <BR>Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  # JAMES M.CAIN
  
  
  **DOUBLE INDEMNITY**
  
  
  James M. Cain (1892-1977) is recognized today as one of the masters of the
  hard-boiled school of American novels. Born in Baltimore, the son of the
  president of Washington College, he began his career as reporter on the
  Baltimore papers, served in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I
  and wrote the material for _The Cross of Lorraine_ , the newspaper of the 79th
  Division. He returned to become professor of journalism at St. Johns College
  in Annapolis and then worked for H.L. Mencken on _The American Mercury_. He
  later wrote editorials for Walter Lippmann on the _New York World_ and was for
  a short period managing editor of _The New Yorker_ , before he went to
  Hollywood as a script writer. His first novel, _The Postman Always Rings
  Twice_ , was published when he was forty-two and at once became a sensation.
  It was tried for obscenity in Boston, was said by Albert Camus