Monster of the Midway is a new site dedicated to Nightmare Alley author William Lindsay Gresham.
Though this site doesn’t get updated often, there isn’t much demand for it, as will probably be the case with the new site.
Like this site, though, it will easily become the best place to find information on the obscure author - considering there’s little more than a wikipedia entry on him.
While preparing the forthcoming Scapegoat Publishing edition of Circus Parade I was able to purchase a copy of Ladies in the Parlor, one of the more scarce Tully novels. Since most of the copies available start at $400 (abebooks and amazon.com), I’ve produced a low priced paperback edition.
164 pages, 6″ x 9″, perfect binding, cream interior paper (60# weight), black and white interior ink, white exterior paper (100# weight), full-color exterior ink.
The paperback is available for $15 (plus shipping) from lulu.com or from Scapegoat Publishing’s official online seller Reptilian Records (link up soon). It will also be available from a few select retailers. I may or may not make it available through Amazon.com in the future.
The cover features model Amy Feline, from a shoot by CatFight! Photography.
This is not a facsimile edition, the entire book has been retypeset and designed. Samples of the title page and the first page of Chapter 1 are below:
Copy from the back cover:
This is the saga of Madame Rosenbloom’s fashionable establishment in Chicago and of the ladies in her domain. And here is the Jim Tully of “Circus Parade”—the forthright Tully whose language is as frank as life itself. Tully does not pull his punches. The big men and the little ladies for whom Madame Rosenbloom’s house is a social center are portrayed with vigor and honesty. The novel is crammed with incident and penetrating word pictures. It is not a story for the squeamish. But if life itself, —that robust, lusty segment of life that is here so honestly and brilliantly depicted—does not frighten or shock you, this novel will hold your deepest interest.
Upon initial printing of this book in 1935, copies were seized from the publisher and destroyed by police based on allegations that the material was obscene and blasphemous. It is unknown how many copies survived. This is the first printing since that time.
This is the first post regarding updates. I will only be posting major updates or corrections here.
I added significantly to the Ladies In The Parlor page, and a page featuring the illustrations from Circus Parade.
This is a new project, but I’ve been able to wrangle quite a bit of info so far. View the About page for more info.
As of this posting, I haven’t sent a link to anyone yet, because I want to get as much info on here as I can, se the standards for what information I want and how I want it, at least as much as possible.
If you’ve stumbled across this site, and have information to add, leave a comment or contact me at kevin @ scapegoatpublishing.com, put “JimTully.net” in the subject line.
As a publisher and bibliophile myself, the information being added is mainly geared toward the published books.
Unfortunately most copies of Tully’s works that I own do not contain dust-jackets and are “readers”. The upside is I’m more willing to abuse them for science.
