1st printing. By Spain Rodriguez and William Lindsay
Gresham.
An adaptation of the long out-of-print 1930s cult novel of
the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, illustrated by legendary underground
cartoonist Spain Rodriguez.
The story is a study of the lowest depths of showbiz and its
sleazy inhabitants and environs, the dark, shadowy world of a second-rate
carnival filled with cheap hustlers, scheming grifters, and Machiavellian femme
fatales.
Gresham was born in Baltimore in 1909, but grew up in New
York. Nightmare Alley was highly influenced by the freaks and sideshows he
routinely observed at Coney Island as a child.
The book depicts the rise of Stan Carlisle from a carnival
mentalist to a successful "spiritualist," preying on the rich and
gullible matrons of society, to his eventual fall and total disintegration.
Softcover, 136 pages, B&W. Mature Readers Cover price $14.95.