William L. Gresham

William Lindsay Gresham (1909-1962) grew up in Brooklyn, where he became fascinated by the sideshow at Coney Island. After serving as a medic for the Loyalist forces during the Spanish civil war, he edited true-crime pulp magazines. In 1947, Nightmare Alley, his best-known work, was adapted into a film starring Tyrone Power.

Nightmare Alley By William L. Gresham Introduction by Nick Tosches Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a freak-show geek-alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd's gleeful disgust and derision-going about his work at a county fair. Category: Fiction Publisher: NYRB Classics