Charles Mergendahl (1919 – 1959) was a novelist and screenwriter best known for his 1958 bestseller The Bramble Bush, which was made into a movie starring Richard Burton and Angie Dickinson. He was killed in an accidental fall at his home.
Martha Gwynn hated "the girl cage," the San Diego house she shared with four other military wives while their husbands were fighting in Korea. She especially hated how the other women escaped that cage. Martha promised herself she wouldn't be like them -- that she would resist temptation and wait for her husband's safe return. But then her resolve began to crack, threatening to shatter her life.