Marilyn Durham

Marilyn Durham (née Wall, September 8, 1930 – March 19, 2015) was an American author of fiction. Her best-known novel is her first, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, which was made into a film of the same name.

Early life Durham was born in Evansville, Indiana, in 1930, to Russell and Stacy Birdsall Wall. Her father was an L&N blacksmith. Durham attended Evansville College (now called the University of Evansville) for a year (1949–50). She married Kilburn Durham, a field representative for Social Security, in November 1950, and settled into life as a wife and mother and self-described "frumpy housewife." The Durhams had two daughters, Elaine and Jennifer. Durham had a lifelong interest in the history of medieval England, archaeology, theology, and astronomy.

The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing One evening in 1969, Durham told her husband that she could write a novel better than any she had been reading lately. Eventually she set about doing this. While her daughters were in school, Durham began writing a novel at her dining room table. She made efforts to conceal her writing from her family because, in her words, "If it wasn't any good, I wanted to be the only one who knew. I didn't want egg on my face." Her husband discovered that she was writing when she had almost finished the sixth chapter, and she swore him to secrecy on the subject.

The following year, the film version of the novel was released. Directed by Richard C. Sarafian, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing starred Burt Reynolds and British actress Sarah Miles. It would be Reynolds's first romantic movie. Many who regarded the novel highly were disappointed by its formulaic Hollywood treatment in the movie. Veteran screenwriter Eleanor Perry had written the first script and told Durham that she loved her heroine. The studio then hired a number of "script doctors," who rewrote the characters, dialogue and the ending.

The sentence "Catherine eventually discovers that Jay is haunted" should read "Catherine eventually discovers that Jay is hunted" (hunted, not haunted)

Dutch Uncle Durham followed up the success of The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing with another character-driven Western novel, Dutch Uncle, which was published by Harcourt in 1973. Several options were taken on it by would-be film makers over the next forty years.

Flambard's Confession Durham's next book would not be published until 1982, again by Harcourt. Flambard's Confession is a work of historical fiction and a return to her primary intellectual passion: the history of medieval England. Like her previous two books, it was featured as a selection of the Book of the Month Club and was critically praised, but sold less well than her preceding works. She died on March 19, 2015, aged 84 in her native Evansville.

Awards Durham won the fiction award of the Society of Midland Authors in 1973 for The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.