Publisher's Synopsis
James Thorne Smith, Jr. (1892-1934) was an American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction under the byline Thorne Smith. He is best known today for his two Topper novels, comic fantasy fiction involving sex, much drinking, and ghosts, the racily illustrated editions of which sold in their millions in the 1930s, becoming equally popular when released as paperback editions in the 1950s. The son of a Navy commodore, Smith attended Dartmouth College, spent time in Greenwich Village as a part-time advertising agent, and then achieved meteoric success with the publication of Topper (also known as The Jovial Ghosts) in 1926. As hard-drinking as his famous characters, he was an early resident of Free Acres, a social experimental community in Berkeley Heights, NJ, and died of a heart attack while vacationing in Florida. Rain in the Doorway (1933) relates the inebriated adventures of cuckolded husband Hector Owen who inadvertently becomes a partner in a big city department store. This story of Owen, his fellow partners, and Miss Honor "Satin" Knightley, a salesgirl in the pornographic books department, is Thorne's most openly erotic work involving various sexual encounters. A courtroom scene provides a dramtic climax but the novel's biggest surprise is not revealed until the final pages.
