formerly Shakespeare and Company Books, now VIcarious Experience

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham. First printing

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham. Rinehart and Company, Inc. (1946). First printing with the circled R on copyright page. No additional printings listed. 5 3/4" x 8 1/4" 275 pages Hardcover with dust jacket. DUST JACKET: Light edge wear and bumping to dust jacket edges. Small chipping at the top and bottom of the spine. Slight tanning. Otherwise, no unusual folds or creases. Not price-clipped with dj price of $2.50. Now protected by a removable mylar dj cover. BOOK: Bright gilt lettering on spine. Light cover edge wear. Previous owner book plate inside front cover. Some smudging inside front cover. Light tanning to paper while maintaining full paper flexibility. No other previous owner markings. No tears, folds or creases to pages. Binding is tight with no looseness to pages. Not ex-library, not remaindered and not a facsimile reprint. For sale by Jon Wobber, bookseller since 1978. IK10a

"Nightmare Alley is a novel by William Lindsay Gresham published in 1946. It is a study of the lowest depths of showbiz and its sleazy inhabitants—the dark, shadowy world of a second-rate carnival filled with hustlers, scheming grifters, and Machiavellian femmes fatales.

Gresham attributed the origin of Nightmare Alley to conversations he had with a former carnival worker while they were both serving as volunteers with the Loyalist forces in the Spanish Civil War. Gresham wrote the novel, his first, while working as an editor for a "true crime," pulp magazine in New York City during the 1940s. He outlined the plot and wrote the first six chapters over a period of two years, then finished the book in four months. Each chapter is represented by a different Tarot card.

Adaptations
A film adaptation of the same name - as a film noir starring Tyrone Power as Stanton Carlisle - was released in 1947.
A graphic novel adaptation of the novel was produced in 2003 by underground cartoonist Spain Rodriguez.[4]
A musical by Jonathan Brielle, directed by Gil Cates. It opened on April 21, 2010 at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.[5]
A film adaptation of the same name - as a neo-noir psychological thriller starring Bradley Cooper as Stanton Carlisle - was released in 2021." - wikipedia