CAIN, James M.

Portrait Photograph Inscribed to His Wife

Black and white portrait photograph. Approximately 8" x 10". Photographer's stamp ("Melbourne Spurr") on the recto. Photographer's signature in the lower right corner a bit smudged, upper right-hand margin slightly cropped, else an attractive, fine print. Inscribed by the author on the recto to his fourth (and final) wife, the opera singer Florence MacBeth: "To Florence: Her favorite ham. Jamie. March 13, 1946." A studio portrait of Cain which he always referred to as his "gangster photo." Cain, behatted, and with his overcoat collar turned up, gruffly peers out of the photo. Always sensitive about his homely looks, this was Cain's favorite photo of himself, with the knowing tough-guy look a happy substitute for his lack of physical beauty. An example of this photograph (and indeed perhaps this same print) appears in the Roy Hoopes biography of Cain.

[BTC #57737]