PHENIX CITY - INSCRIBED BY GENE WORTSMAN, WITH AN ORIGINAL PHOTO LAID IN

Birmingham: Vulcan Press, Inc, 1955. First Edition. Non-fiction exposé by two reporters on Phenix City, Alabama, at one point dubbed "the wickedest city in America." Basis for Phil Karlson's 1955 film noir The Phenix City Story, a semi-documentary of the Alabama town run by a crime syndicate thriving on gambling and prostitution, directed chiefly at soldiers from Ft. Benning across the river. Uncommon inscribed. Octavo (22.5cm); yellow cloth, with titles stamped in black on spine; dustjacket; viii, 284pp. Inscribed by co-author Gene Wortsman on the front endpaper: "October 3, 1955 / To Mary Ann Gibbs, Who had better send me an autographed copy of the book she may write someday / Gene Wortsman." Mild wear to spine ends, cloth lightly dust-soiled (particularly along board edges), with scattered foxing to text edges; Very Good+. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $3.50), lighlty shelfworn, with dust-soil and scattered foxing to extremities, a small chip to crown, with several tiny nicks, short tears, and attendant creases; Very Good+. With a black and white photograph of Gene Wortsman laid in, ca.5" x 7"; light surface wear and creasing, writing in two hands (in pencil) on verso; Very Good.