Roy Hoopes; wrote biography of James Cain
WASHINGTON - Roy Hoopes, 87, a longtime Washington journalist who was the author of an acclaimed biography of crime novelist James M. Cain and more than 30 other books, died Dec. 1 of pneumonia at an assisted living facility in Silver Spring, Md. He lived in Bethesda, Md.
The very definition of a professional writer who lived by his typewriter, Mr. Hoopes contributed to hundreds of publications and held many jobs with magazines, newspapers, and federal agencies.
He wrote books about the Peace Corps, the steel industry, politics, sports, and Hollywood, but he was best known for his 1982 biography of Cain, the author of such hard-boiled classics as “The Postman Always Rings Twice,’’ “Mildred Pierce,’’ and “Double Indemnity.’’
Cain was a master of sharp-edged, risqué crime fiction of the 1930s and ’40s that inspired several popular Hollywood films and was said to have been a model for the fiction of French existentialist Albert Camus. But he was four decades past his early success as a novelist when Mr. Hoopes noticed an article Cain wrote for The Washington Post in 1975 about columnist Walter Lippmann.
Mr. Hoopes found the all-but-forgotten novelist living alone in Hyattsville, Md. He wrote a profile of Cain for Washingtonian magazine and set to work on his biography. He talked extensively with Cain before the 85-year-old author died in 1977.
“During my interviews with Cain, I was struck by a curious paradox,’’ Mr. Hoopes wrote in the preface to his 684-page biography. “Despite his remarkable career and his seventeen books, several of them highly acclaimed worldwide best sellers, he said he did not have a sense of accomplishment in his life. . . . When I told him I thought he had led a fascinating life, he replied: ‘It may be to you, but it’s never been interesting to me.’ ’’