Circus parade / by Jim Tully, illustrated by William Gropper

Tully, Jim. Circus Parade. Illustrated by William Gropper. First Edition. New York, Albert & Charles Boni, 1927. 20.7cm x 14cm. 275 pages. Original, illustrated Hardcover (red cloth with circus-tent on front board and red lettering on green spine). Good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Spine starting to separate from block. Endpaper signed by the author Jim Tully. Jim Tully (June 3, 1886 - June 22, 1947) was a vagabond, pugilist, and American writer. His critical and commercial success in the 1920s and 30s may qualify him as the greatest long shot in American literature. His literary career took two distinct paths. He became one of the first reporters to cover Hollywood. As a free-lancer he was not constrained by the studios and wrote about Hollywood celebrities (including Charlie Chaplin, for whom he had worked) in ways that they did not always find agreeable. For these pieces, rather tame by current standards, he became known as the most-hated man in Hollywood-a title he relished. Less lucrative but closer to his heart were the books he wrote about his life on the road and the American underclass. He also wrote an affectionate memoir of his childhood with his extended Irish family, as well as novels on prostitution, boxing, Hollywood, and a travel book. While some of the more graphic books ran afoul of the censors, they also garnered both commercial success and critical acclaim from, among others, H.L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan, and Rupert Hughes, who wrote that Tully has fathered the school of hard-boiled writing so zealously cultivated by Ernest Hemingway and lesser luminaries. (Wikipedia).