Paul Cain

George Caryl Sims (May 30, 1902 – June 23, 1966), better known by his pen names Paul Cain and Peter Ruric, was an American pulp fiction author and screenwriter. He is best known for his novel Fast One, which is considered to be a landmark of the pulp fiction genre and was called the "high point in the ultra hard-boiled manner" by Raymond Chandler. Lee Server, author of the Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers, called Fast One "a cold-hearted, machine-gun-paced masterwork" and his other writings "gemlike, stoic and merciless vignettes that seemed to come direct from the bootlegging front lines."

Sims enjoyed a brief career in Hollywood as a screenwriter during the 1930s and 1940s, including writing the screenplay for the Boris Karloff vehicle The Black Cat. He claimed in a letter to Black Mask editor Joseph Shaw that he had been a professional balloonist, as well as a gambler, painter, sailor, and editor. Los Angeles Review of Books editor Boris Dralyuk (who wrote the introduction to 2013's The Paul Cain Omnibus) The story follows gangster Gerry Kells as he navigates, and instigates, a bloody gang war in Los Angeles. Sims dedicated the novel to Michael, who probably inspired the character of the alcoholic girlfriend of the protagonist. The New York Times described it as “a ceaseless welter of bloodshed and frenzy, a sustained bedlam of killing and fiendishness, told in terse staccato style.” Sims and Michael broke up in 1933. Fast One sold poorly and received mixed critical reviews, and Sims never wrote another novel. However, its reputation has grown increasingly over time, and it is now considered a classic of the genre. In 2016, The Los Angeles Review of Books called Fast One part of "a protean time for crime fiction", and praised the novel as "one hell of a twisty, tough nihilistic story set in 1932-’33 Los Angeles."

Sims continued to work as a screenwriter in Hollywood under the name "Peter Ruric", contributing not only the script for 1934's The Black Cat, his most famous movie, but 1934's Affairs of a Gentleman, 1942's Grand Central Murder, and 1944's Guy de Maupassant adaptation Mademoiselle Fifi.

In 1946, a paperback collection of his best stories called Seven Slayers was published by Saint Enterprises. Sims wanted to change his listed name to Ruric but the publisher insisted on sticking with the name Cain.

Writing style In the field of hardboiled noir fiction, a genre already known for its starkness and cynicism, Sims' writing as Paul Cain was notable for its cold, brutal nihilism. Comparing Cain with other masters of the genre such as Raymond Chandler, Boris Dralyuk said that, "Stacked pound-for-pound against Cain’s lean and war-hardened antihero Gerry Kells, Chandler’s Philip Marlowe comes off like a flabby, eccentric chatterbox." Dralyuk has also noted that Cain's work often features "fits of misogyny" and "laconic indications of buried trauma, resentment, and addiction." Genre historian David E. Wilt called Cain's prose "competent though not outstanding", with the exception of the five Fast One stories. Nevertheless, Cain has been rediscovered and critically praised in recent years, with his complete works collected in The Paul Cain Omnibus and Seven Slayers.

Cain's protagonists were unsentimental, brooding, compulsive antiheroes capable of remarkable levels of violence. The 1933 New York Times review of Fast One called the lead character, gangster Gerry Kells, "so ferocious a hoodlum ... a sot, drug addict, two-gun deadshot." Rather than traditional detectives, most Cain protagonists were gangsters or at least on the wrong side of the law. Washington Post literary critic Michael Dirda called Cain's style "lean, stripped-down prose, affectless narrative voice" leavened by touches of "wry humor". He noted that "The narrative's point of view is nearly always external: People talk, actions are starkly described, no explanations are given, and we can only guess what Kells or other characters are thinking. The prose is similar to Hemingway's, but even leaner." Fast One included a scene set at the iconic restaurant and writer hangout Musso & Frank Grill. Several stories are set in the world of Hollywood, and feature lead characters who work in or near the movie industry.

Personal life Sims married Virginia Maxine Glau in 1939, changing her name to Mechel Ruric; she was nearly 20 years his junior. The marriage dissolved in 1943 due to his alcoholism. He married again in 1945 or 1946 to writer Virginia Radcliffe, with whom he collaborated on several radio scripts; that marriage lasted until about 1950. In 1955, now living in Europe and suffering from poor health, Sims married again, this time to a young Virginia woman named Peggy Gregson who was 30 years younger than him; the couple had two sons. They moved to California and then Virginia, where she stayed; he moved on to Cuba and Los Angeles again, and she remarried in 1962.

He called himself Peter Ruric, rather than George Sims, for most of his life. The friend who settled his affairs after his death, in fact, did not know that his original name was George Sims.

Death Sims died of cancer in North Hollywood in 1966.