Re: RARA-AVIS: Noir Fiction: Dark Highways

From: James Rogers ( jetan@ionet.net)
Date: 30 Jun 2000


At 10:34 AM 6/30/00 -0400, William Denton wrote:
>
>Who are Wolfson, Bardin, Gresham, and Stevens? Maybe you could post one
>of them? Or, for someone we've probably all read, maybe Goodis or
>Thompson.
>
>

     I think you probably do remember William Gresham, who I believe was the author of _Nightmare Alley_, the hardboiled carny classic. He also wrote a rather interesting biography of Houdini....or at least I liked it when I was a kid.
     According to Fred Pohl's autobiography, Gresham could be an extreme jerk and was prone to take out his personal frustrations on everyone surrounding him. As I recall, he ended up a suicide. Certainly _NA_, though not an "artistic" book, is just about as dark and tough as anything ever written.

                           James

James Michael Rogers jetan@ionet.net

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