James M. Cain was among the prominent member of the "hard-boiled" school of writing that characterized the 1930s and 1940s, one of the masters of the genre that included Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. His novels became such popular film noir classics as The Postman always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, and Mildred Pierce, and his 1937 novel Serenade boldly portrayed its hero as a bisexual. Cain also taught journalism at various colleges in Maryland, wrote editorials for the New York World, and was for a brief time managing editor at The New Yorker. This is the first biography of James M. Cain written with the full cooperation of the late novelist's family.

About the Author
David Madden was founding director of the United States Civil War Center from 1992 to 1999 and is now LSU Robert Penn Warren Professor of Creative Writing, Emeritus. He served on the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Advisory Board and was Louisiana Commissioner for the Bicentennial. He has published many books of nonfiction, including four on the Civil War. He has also published eleven novels, including Sharpshooter: A Novel of the Civil War, and three books of short stories, including his latest, The Last Bizarre Tale. His book of stories, The Shadow Knows, won a National Council on the Arts Award, and The Suicide's Wife was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a CBS movie. Madden has lectured on the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, fiction, and a wide variety of other subjects, and given dramatic readings of his fiction at more than two hundred colleges and conferences. A native of east Tennessee, he now lives in Black Mountain, North Carolina.


Book Information
ISBN 9781493048120
Author David Madden
Format Hardback
Page Count 312
Imprint The Lyons Press
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Weight(grams) 608g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 162mm * 28mm