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Grindshow: The Selected Writings of William Lindsay Gresham
Whether writing for the detective pulps, sci-fi digests, or lowbrow men's magazines, William Lindsay Gresham indulged his fascination with crime, psychology, magic, and spiritism. This book unearths twenty-four of Gresham's most fascinating short stories and essays, most of which have never been reprinted, and provides a comprehensive view of one of pulp fiction's most enigmatic figures.
- GenresFictionShort Stories
400 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2014
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About the author
William Lindsay Gresham
23 books100 followersWilliam Lindsay Gresham (August 20, 1909 – September 14, 1962) was an American novelist and non-fiction author particularly regarded among readers of noir. His best-known work is Nightmare Alley (1946), which was adapted into a 1947 film starring Tyrone Power.
Gresham was born in Baltimore, Maryland. As a child, he moved to New York with his family, where he became fascinated by the sideshow at Coney Island. Upon graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn in 1926, Gresham drifted from job to job, and worked as a folk singer in Greenwich Village. In 1937, Gresham served as a volunteer medic for the Loyalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. There, he befriended a former sideshow employee, Joseph Daniel "Doc" Halliday, and their long conversations inspired much of his work, particularly Gresham's two books about the American carnival, the nonfiction Monster Midway and the fictional Nightmare Alley.
Returning to the United States in 1939, after a troubling period that involved a stay in a tuberculosis ward and a failed suicide attempt, Gresham found work editing true crime pulp magazines. In 1942, Gresham married Joy Davidman, a poet, with whom he had two children, David and Douglas Gresham. Gresham was an abusive, unfaithful, and alcoholic husband. Davidman, although born Jewish, became a fan of the writings of C.S. Lewis, which led eventually to her conversion to Christianity. Davidman eventually fled her marriage to Gresham and later married Lewis, their relationship forming the inspiration for the play and movie Shadowlands.
Gresham married Davidman's first cousin, Renee Rodriguez, with whom he had been having an affair and who was herself suffering an abusive marriage. Gresham joined Alcoholics Anonymous and developed a deep interest in Spiritualism, having already exposed many of the fraudulent techniques of popular spiritualists in his two sideshow-themed books and having authored a book about Houdini with the assistance of noted skeptic James Randi. He was also an early enthusiast of Scientology but later denounced the religion as another kind of spook racket.
In 1962, Gresham's health began to take a turn for the worse. He had started to go blind and had been diagnosed with cancer of the tongue. On September 14, 1962, he checked into the Dixie Hotel — which he had often frequented while writing Nightmare Alley over a decade earlier. There, 53 year old Gresham took his life with an overdose of sleeping pills. His death went generally unnoticed by the New York press, but for a mention by a bridge columnist.
Gresham was born in Baltimore, Maryland. As a child, he moved to New York with his family, where he became fascinated by the sideshow at Coney Island. Upon graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn in 1926, Gresham drifted from job to job, and worked as a folk singer in Greenwich Village. In 1937, Gresham served as a volunteer medic for the Loyalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. There, he befriended a former sideshow employee, Joseph Daniel "Doc" Halliday, and their long conversations inspired much of his work, particularly Gresham's two books about the American carnival, the nonfiction Monster Midway and the fictional Nightmare Alley.
Returning to the United States in 1939, after a troubling period that involved a stay in a tuberculosis ward and a failed suicide attempt, Gresham found work editing true crime pulp magazines. In 1942, Gresham married Joy Davidman, a poet, with whom he had two children, David and Douglas Gresham. Gresham was an abusive, unfaithful, and alcoholic husband. Davidman, although born Jewish, became a fan of the writings of C.S. Lewis, which led eventually to her conversion to Christianity. Davidman eventually fled her marriage to Gresham and later married Lewis, their relationship forming the inspiration for the play and movie Shadowlands.
Gresham married Davidman's first cousin, Renee Rodriguez, with whom he had been having an affair and who was herself suffering an abusive marriage. Gresham joined Alcoholics Anonymous and developed a deep interest in Spiritualism, having already exposed many of the fraudulent techniques of popular spiritualists in his two sideshow-themed books and having authored a book about Houdini with the assistance of noted skeptic James Randi. He was also an early enthusiast of Scientology but later denounced the religion as another kind of spook racket.
In 1962, Gresham's health began to take a turn for the worse. He had started to go blind and had been diagnosed with cancer of the tongue. On September 14, 1962, he checked into the Dixie Hotel — which he had often frequented while writing Nightmare Alley over a decade earlier. There, 53 year old Gresham took his life with an overdose of sleeping pills. His death went generally unnoticed by the New York press, but for a mention by a bridge columnist.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 27, 2014
Between Hemingway and Aleister Crowley. Between documentary style and near genius. Material from between 1945-62. A fascinating writer that left a couple great pieces, but so few collected works. Many thanks to Bret Wood for gathering these, so pleased with the projects concept, and execution of the weird carnival art for the binding,it's first-rate!
For all fans of Gresham this is a must-have. For all others the quality of the short stories sandwiched in the middle are as good as some of the best. Maybe as good as Breece Pancake, Bradbury, or Jim Thompson published. --Gresham had a huge range of interests. The first few in the book are all related to Carnivals, Fairground events, & Sideshow Acts. The variety increases with a story of a love interest with three split-personalities, a collector of forgeries of all types, a murder involving the frame-up of an eleven year old girl, a reporter temporarily receiving the good graces of a violent and vindictive dictator, the power of imagination when confined in prison, alleged cases of time travel, an unspoken but collaborative murder carried out to keep it off the conscience of a fifteen year old girl, a perpetually drunk copy editor, the only known "spiritualist" that was never proven fraudulent, and then it starts to get weird. A nice little story with the details and history of the Black Mass all nicely presented as if it could be an article in Ladies Home Journal. Informative, obscure, satisfying.
For all fans of Gresham this is a must-have. For all others the quality of the short stories sandwiched in the middle are as good as some of the best. Maybe as good as Breece Pancake, Bradbury, or Jim Thompson published. --Gresham had a huge range of interests. The first few in the book are all related to Carnivals, Fairground events, & Sideshow Acts. The variety increases with a story of a love interest with three split-personalities, a collector of forgeries of all types, a murder involving the frame-up of an eleven year old girl, a reporter temporarily receiving the good graces of a violent and vindictive dictator, the power of imagination when confined in prison, alleged cases of time travel, an unspoken but collaborative murder carried out to keep it off the conscience of a fifteen year old girl, a perpetually drunk copy editor, the only known "spiritualist" that was never proven fraudulent, and then it starts to get weird. A nice little story with the details and history of the Black Mass all nicely presented as if it could be an article in Ladies Home Journal. Informative, obscure, satisfying.
Displaying 1 of 1 review