William Lindsay Gresham (; August 20, 1909 – September 14, 1962) was an American novelist and non-fiction author particularly well-regarded among readers of noir. His best-known work is Nightmare Alley (1946), which was adapted to film in 1947 and 2021.
Life and career
Gresham was born in Baltimore, Maryland. As a child, he moved with his family to New York, 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.
His parents divorced when he was 16. His own first marriage also ended in divorce, as well as his second to a New Jersey socialite, which fell apart after nine years when he returned to the United States, embittered by his experiences in Spain.
Suffering from an illness, Davidman decided to go to England in 1952 to seek out C.S. Lewis, with whom she had been corresponding. She invited her cousin, Renée Rodriguez—who was fleeing an abusive husband with her two small children—to keep house for her family in her absence. Gresham and Rodriguez soon began an affair.
Gresham wrote to Davidman in January 1953 that he and Rodriguez had become lovers and Davidman returned to New York, enduring an awkward period during which all three of them were living under the same roof because none could afford to go anywhere else.
Davidman sold the house to pay off the Internal Revenue Service and moved to England with the boys. Later she married Lewis, their relationship forming the inspiration for the television film Shadowlands, After Davidman's untimely death, Gresham visited England to see his sons. When it became apparent that they were well cared for, he left them in the care of Lewis. His death went generally unnoticed by the New York press but for a mention by a bridge columnist. Business cards were found in his pocket, reading "No Address. No Phone. No Business. No Money. Retired."
Works
- Nightmare Alley (1946); London : Raven Books, 2020, ; aus dem Amerikanischen von Christian Veit Eschenfelder und Anja Heidböhmer, Leipzig : Festa, März 2022,
- Limbo Tower (1949)
- Monster Midway: An Uninhibited Look at the Glittering World of the Carny (1954)
- Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls (1959)
- The Book of Strength: Body Building the Safe, Correct Way (1961)
- Grindshow: The Selected Writings of William Lindsay Gresham, edited by Bret Wood (2013)