September 14: William Lindsay Gresham

William Lindsay Gresham died by suicide in 1962. He took his life with an overdose of sleeping pills in a New York hotel room. His first novel, Nightmare Alley, established his tastes for the unusual side of show business, and his fondness for the sideshow. Later books included Monster Midway and Houdini, the Man Who Walked Through Walls. An inspired writer, Nightmare Alley was too lurid and weird to be captured by the 1947 Tyronne Power movie, and his Houdini biography seemed written to the rat-a-tat rhythm of a 1900 vaudeville band. But Gresham was troubled by alcoholism, illness, and failed relationships. Reportedly, the business cards found in the pocket of his jacket read, “No address. No phone. No business. No money. Retired.”