Marilyn Durham, née Marilyn Wall, born September 8, 1930, is 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.
Durham was born in Evansville, Indiana in 1930, to Russell and Stacy Wall. Her father was a blacksmith. Durham attended Evansville College (now called the University of Evansville) for a year (1949—1950). She married Kilburn Durham, a field worker for Social Security, in November 1950, and settled into life as a wife and mother...she is a self-described "frumpy housewife." The Durhams would have two daughters. Durham has a lifelong interest in the history of Medieval England, archaeology, theology and astronomy, and has read extensively on all of these topics.
One evening in 1969, while reading, Durham told her husband that she could write a novel better than any she had been reading lately. Eventually she set about doing this...with her two daughters in school, Durham began writing a novel, working on it while alone in the house during the day. (Throughout the childhood of her daughters Durham continued to schedule her writing around her work as a homemaker, writing mainly in the morning.)She made efforts to conceal her writing from her daughters and husband, 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 actually writing a book when she had almost finished the sixth chapter, and she swore him to secrecy on the subject.
Durham sold The Man who Loved Cat Dancing to Harcourt Brace, which published it in 1972. The novel is set in the American West in the 1880s, but is not written in a genre style. It is the story of Jay, a man of the West, and his offbeat relationship with Catherine, a woman from the East who is fleeing an unhappy marriage. Jay kidnaps Catherine on his way to rob a train and together they travel through the Wyoming Territory. Catherine eventually discovers that Jay is haunted by the murder of his wife, a Shoshone Indian named Cat Dancing, and his actions after the murder. Pursued by Catherine's husband and a railroad agent, Catherine and Jay fall in love. The novel became a best seller, and was generally praised by reviewers for its deft character studies as well as its effortlessly entertaining style.
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' first romantic movie. Many who regarded the novel highly were disappointed by its formulaic Hollywood treatment in the movie.
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. The protagonist, Jake Hollander, is an aging gunfighter turned professional poker player who comes into a small New Mexico town to gamble but, through a series of unlikely circumstances, becomes its marshal and takes two Mexican orphans under his wing. Dutch Uncle, like The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, garnered critical praise for its character studies and clean writing style, but although a bestseller was not as great a success as Durham's preceding book; based on the success of The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, the movie rights to the book had been committed before Durham had completed Dutch Uncle, but the studio ultimately declined to make the film.
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. Flambard is a priest and functionary of both William the Conqueror and William Rufus, the first two Norman kings of England, and his story is told as a deathbed confession, full of the court intrigue of the times and colorful descriptions of early 12th century life in 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.
Durham has not published a book since Flambard's Confession, although she has continued to write. As of the late 1980s she was still living in Evansville and at that time said that her successful literary career has not changed her life. Her novels have seen multiple reprintings and have been translated into many languages. Durham's husband Kilburn died in 1994.
