Dorothy Baker

Dorothy Baker was an American novelist and short story writer who was active in the mid-twentieth century. Born in 1907, she is best known for her novel Young Man with a Horn, inspired by the life of jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke, which was adapted into a 1950 film starring Kirk Douglas. Cassandra at the Wedding is considered her finest work, a psychologically intense novel about identical twin sisters whose close bond is disrupted when one of them decides to marry. The novel explores themes of identity, dependency, jealousy and the complex dynamics of sibling relationships with sharp psychological insight and elegant prose. Baker's writing is characterised by its intelligence, wit and emotional precision, and Cassandra at the Wedding has been rediscovered and championed by new generations of readers as a neglected masterpiece of American fiction. Her audiobooks and books offer readers beautifully crafted literary fiction from a writer who deserves wider recognition. She died in 1968.