About the Author

JAMES M. CAIN was born in Annapolis in 1892. He lived and worked in Hollywood for seventeen years, and spent the last years of his life in Hyattsville, Maryland. His work, especially the best-sellers The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and The Butterfly, is known to millions in this country and abroad. ROY HOOPES is the author of Cain, the authorized biography of James M. Cain; Ralph Ingersoll, a biography of the noted journalist; Americans Remember the Home Front, an account of America during World War II; and many other books and articles. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland. LYNNE BARRETT teaches at Florida International University in Miami. Her stories have appeared in Redbook, Minnesota Review, and other magazines. Her first collection of short fiction, The Land of Go, was published in 1988.