7/1/1892 The Baby not in the icebox

July 1, 1892.  Happy birthday to James M. Cain, one of the noiriest of the noir writers. He was greatly admired for The Postman  Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce, and Double Indemnity, among other grim stories of bad things happening to bad people.

Many of them were made into movies.  Supposedly when a friend tried to sympathize with him about what Hollywood had done to his books, Cain replied "They haven't done anything with them  They're right over there on the shelf."