Nightmare Alley
New York: Rinehart & Company, 1946.
First edition. (First printing with publisher's colophon on copyright page.) [x], 275 pp. Bound in publisher's black cloth, gilt and green stamping to spine. Fine in an unsunned, sharp example of the fragile dust jacket, with a little soiling to rear panel, else Fine. A superb copy of an inexpensively-made book that is quite rare in such lovely shape. The carnival-themed noir that inspired a 2021 film directed by Guillermo del Toro. The author's debut novel. He had long dreamed of joining the circus and was inspired by a fellow fighter in the antifascist Abraham Lincoln Brigades during the Spanish Civil War and later friend, Joseph Daniel "Doc" Halliday, who was a former sideshow employee. Later on in life Gresham would learn how to eat fire and tell fortunes, and volunteer in a knife-throwing act.
Price: $3,000.00