Career in C Major

Career in C Major is an opera-themed novella by American writer James M. Cain, first published in 1938. First appearing as a serial in The American Magazine entitled "Two Can Sing", this comic romance is a departure from Cain's first novels, Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) and Double Indemnity (1936), both hardboiled crime stories that included premeditated murder.[1][2] Redbook magazine, disappointed that Cain had exchanged his hard-boiled themes involving sex and murder for a "comedic adventure", declined to purchase the novella but Liberty obtained the piece and carried it as a serial in 1935.[3][4]

The story was included with two of Cain's depression era novels in 1943 in a collection entitled Three of a Kind.[5][6] Career in C Major was adapted to film in 1938 by Twentieth Century Fox as Wife, Husband and Friend, and again in 1949 as Everybody Does It.[7][8]

  1. ^ Skenazy, 1989 p. 51: First titled "Two Can Sing." And: The novella "...a radical departure from the two works of murder and intrigue that had made him famous."
  2. ^ Madden, 1970 p. 50: "Career in C Major originally appeared in 1938 as a serial in The American Magazine under the title "Two Can Sing." And p. 64: "...comic romance…"
  3. ^ Hoopes, 1982 p. 268-269: Redbook declined the work, but it was sold to Liberty for $8000.
  4. ^ Hoopes, 1981 p. 215-216
  5. ^ Hoopes, 1986 p. 185-186: "comedic adventure" is Cain's description.
  6. ^ Skenazy, 1989 p. 12: "...three magazine serials were eventually published together as a book, Three of a Kind in 1943." See here for original titles for the three novels., including Career in C Major.
  7. ^ Madden, 1970 p. 47: Career in C Major was adapted to film as Wife, Husband and Friend (1938), with Loretta Young and Warner Baxter"
  8. ^ Hoopes, 1982 p. 447: On Everybody Does It.