Writer James Caine: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

James Kane is an American writer and journalist. Although the author himself was against such a definition, he is considered one of the outstanding crime writers of the 30s and 40s of the last century, as well as the progenitor of such a literary genre as noir fiction or romance noir. His works amazed readers with the cruelty, greed and sexual obsession of the main characters.

Biography of James Caine

The writer was born on July 1, 1892 in the capital of Maryland - in the city of Annapolis, in the family of an English professor, teacher at St. John's College - James William Caine, and professional opera singer Rose Mallahan. Both parents were of Irish descent and Catholic.

Kane was educated at Washington College, graduating in 1910. After college, for some time he, like his mother, hoped to become a singer, but this idea was not successful. During the First World War, he was drafted into the army, andKane spent the last year of the war in France as a reporter for an army magazine. After finishing his military career, James Caine returned to his homeland and got a job as a journalist in the B altimore News-American newspaper.

Creativity

In 1931 he was invited to Hollywood to write scripts for films, but Kane was unsuccessful as a screenwriter. Not wanting to leave California, he began to write plays, short stories and satirical works for various publications and in 1934 published his first, best and most famous novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice. This work is considered one of the most important crime novels of the 20th century and is included in the top 100 novels in the modern library. Based on this bestseller, eight films were made at different times.

The author wrote extensively over the next few years. In 1936, his next novel, Double Indemnity, was published in the Freedom magazine. And again in the work it was about sex and about the heroes who sought to achieve their goals through violence. Kane continued to write until his death. He published several novels that became popular and financially successful, including "Serenade", "Mildred Pierce" and "Butterfly".

Private life

The writer has been married four times. In January 1920 he married teacher Mary Rebecca Clough. Seven years later, Kane divorced Mary and married Elina Shested Tisetskaya, but this union was short-lived.

In August 1944, the writer exchanged vows with the famousactress Eileen Pringle. Two years later, the marriage broke up. James Caine's fourth and final alliance with Florence Macbeth continued until her death in 1966. Cain died on October 31, 1977 in his small two-story house in University Park.