1960 Signet paperback original
cover art by Barye Phillips
3rd with Aloysius Algernon Steele, a private eye who prefers to be called “Rocky”
West was a black physician who lived in Liberia and specialized in tropical diseases, and who wrote hardboiled pulp about a white shamus in NYC
New York: E.P. Dutton, 1955. First Edition. In publisher’s trial dust jacket, date stamped March 1, 1955, on the bottom of the front flap.
Basis for Stanley Kubrick’s breakthrough 1956 film “The Killing,” starring Sterling Hayden in one of his defining roles.
1956 Signet reissue – cover art by Robert Maguire
1988 Black Lizard reissue – cover art by Kirwin
1956 United Artists – written and directed by Stanley Kubrick
Model Carol Siebeck posing for Kiss Me, Deadly, 1960 Signet 1758 20th printing. Cover art by James Avati.
1963 Corgi UK paperback original
cover art by Renato Fratini
1969 Signet edition – 1st US edition
cover art by Robert McGinnis
better image than previously posted
cover art by Terry Gilbert
Ballinger’s 3rd novel, 1950 Harper hardcover
also issued as The Deadlier Sex by Corgi in London
over art by Stanley Meltzoff
better image than previously posted
1952 Dutton hardcover, this the 1953 Signet softcover
his third book with Neal Cotten
cover art by George T. Erickson
better image than previously posted
Nightmare Alley. William Lindsay Gresham. New York: Rinehart and Company, Inc. 1946. First edition. Original dust jacket; art by A. F. Arnold.
Scarce macabre carnival themed thriller. “Loneliness came over him, like an avalanche of snow. He was alone. Where he had always wanted to be. You can only trust yourself. There’s a rat buried deep in everybody and they’ll rat on you if they get pushed far enough.”
cover art by James Avati
first film adaptation in 1947
second in 2021
SMB Noir 
