George M. Cain labeled himself a "scorpio"; no other precise information about his early life is available except that he was born in 1943 and grew up in Harlem, where he attended both public and private schools. He entered Iona College in New Rochelle on a basketball scholarship but left in his junior year to travel, spending time in California, Mexico, and Texas. In 1966 he returned to New York and began writing his autobiography, Blueschild Baby (1971), labeled by Addison Gayle in his New York Times review (17 January 1971) "the most important work of fiction by an Afro-American since Native Son." He married in 1968 and later moved with his wife and daughter to Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn.

Cain dedicates Blueschild Baby to "all those who loved and helped me: mother, father, family and friends, Jo Lynne (wife) and Nataya (daughter)." He was paying tribute to a powerful support system.

Cain's book is...