Cain
in the Pulps
Although Cain was selling very well in hardback for his publisher Knopf,
he agreed to publish his short novel The Galloping Domino (based
on his early play 7-11) as a paperback original for Avon. Avon changed
the title to the more marketable Sinful Woman and published it in
1948.
In 1946 Cain wrote Nevada Moon, which he intended to sell for
serial publication and to the movies. The story originally featured the
character Keyes, Edward G. Robinson's character in Double Indemnity;
Robinson was reportedly interested in pursuing Keyes as a continuing character.
Nevada Moon failed to impress its intended audience, and so it was
put away until Cain dusted it off, rewrote it (eliminating all references
to Keyes and Double Indemnity), and allowed Avon to publish it as
a paperback original. Again Avon changed the title, the published work
emerging with the more exploitive Jealous Woman.
Cain's 1937 serial "The Modern Cinderella" was made into the
1939 movie When Tomorrow Comes, starring Irene Dunne and Charles
Boyer. Once again Avon agreed to publish the novel as a paperback original,
and once again they did not like Cain's title. This time Cain assisted in
the renaming process, and The Root of his Evil was the result.
"Cigarette Girl" (Manhunt, May 1953)Manhunt, which has come to be regarded as probably the most important
outlet for "hard-boiled" fiction after Black Mask, was
a fairly new pulp magazine when Cain arranged to publish his short story
"Cigarette Girl" in the May 1953 issue. Cain's agent didn't like
the idea of selling a story to a "second-rate" men's magazine,
but Cain persisted, remarking that Manhunt was "the first magazine
in a long time that [had] shown much interest in [his] writings."
Cain's creative powers were deteriorating, however, and while Manhunt
published one more short story, they turned down three others.
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