James Kane is an American writer and journalist. Although the author himself was against such a definition, he is considered one of the prominent criminal writers of the 30s and 40s of the last century, as well as the progenitor of such a literary genre as noir fiction or Romanesque noir. His works amazed readers with the cruelty, greed and sexual obsession of the main characters.
James Kane Biography
The writer was born July 1, 1892 in the capital of Maryland - in the city of Annapolis, in the family of an English professor, a teacher at St. John's College - James William Kane, and professional opera singer Rosa Mallahan. Both parents were of Irish descent and Catholic.
Kane received his education at Washington College, which he graduated in 1910. After college, for some time he, like his mother, hoped to become a singer, but this venture was unsuccessful. During World War I, he was drafted into the army, and Kane spent the last year of the war in France as a reporter for an army magazine. After graduating from a military career, James Kane returned to his homeland and got a job as a journalist in the Baltimore News-American newspaper.
Creation
In 1931, he was invited to Hollywood to write screenplays for films, but screenwriter Kane was unsuccessful. Not wanting to leave California, he began to write plays, short stories and satirical works for various publications and in 1934 released his first, best and most famous novel “The Postman Always Calls Twice”. This work is considered one of the most important crime novels of the 20th century and is included in the hundred best novels of the modern library. Based on this bestseller, at different times, eight films were shot.
Over the next few years, the author wrote a lot. In 1936, his next novel, Double Compensation, was published in the Liberty magazine. And again, the work was about sex and the heroes who sought to achieve their goals through violence. Kane continued to write until his death. He released several novels that became popular and financially successful, including Serenade, Mildred Pierce, and Butterfly.
Personal life
The writer was married four times. In January 1920, he married teacher Mary Rebekah 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 famous actress Eileen Pringle. Two years later, the marriage broke up. The fourth and final alliance of James Kane with Florence Macbeth lasted until her death in 1966. Cain died on October 31, 1977 in his small two-story house in University Park.