Turnabout

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. In Turnabout (1931) he pits a thoroughly modern young married couple in a classic battle of the sexes. After listening to the constant bickering and petty jealousies of Tim and Sally Willows, an Egyptian idol decides to play a trick on them by switching their bodies. Smith's singular humour is seen at its best in the unforeseen consequences of the couple's transformation, such as the incident when Tim, trapped in his wife's body, exacts an icy revenge on philanderer Carl Bently, the object of the real Sally's affections.