James Cary Hawes was the second of three sons of Albert Cary Hawes (1859-c.1901), a pig iron manufacturer, and his wife Martha ("Mattie") Hawes (1863-1936), nee Butler. Albert Cary Hawes was the son of Brigadier General James Morrison Hawes (1824-1889) of the Confederate States of America.The family lived in Chicago for a number of years. In 1902, after the death of her husband, Mattie Hawes moved back to Kentucky. According to his draft registration card from June 1917, James Cary Hawes was then working as a clerk at a lumberyard in Chicago. He is listed as having the physical debility of being a hunchback.
His only known fiction is the story "The Crystal Ball" published in the 1 August 1919 issue of The Thrill Book. It is a rather flat situation comedy--wherein a film actor, in debt to his boss, faces a series of contrived situations in order to get out of debt. These include arranging a quick marriage to become his dying aunt's heir, as well as dealing with a series of ladies claiming to own a valuable diamond (known as the Crystal Ball) which had been stolen yet somehow comes into the actor's possession. The situation ends ridiculously, as the actor's girlfriend has staged the whole situation to delay any marriage until her own acting contract, which specifically forbade her from marrying, expired at midnight. The boss then buys screen rights to the scenario.
Hawes is also known to have contributed to The Spectator: A Weekly Review of Insurance.
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