Walter Brown Gibson Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Walter Brown Gibson (September 12, 1897 – December 6, 1985) was an American author and professional magician, best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow. Gibson, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant, wrote "more than 300 novel-length" Shadow stories, writing up to "10,000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age in the 1930s and 1940s. He also authored several novels in the Biff Brewster juvenile series of the 1960s. He was married to Litzka R. Gibson, also a writer, and the couple lived in New York state.
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Profession
Writer
Nationality
American
Star Sign
Virgo
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Fact
1
He was the first (and most prolific) person to write "The Shadow" novels under the name "Maxwell Grant", but he was not the only one. "Maxwell Grant", although Gibson's idea, became a property of magazine publisher Street & Smith, which hired other writers to pen "The Shadow" pulps using the name, among them Theodore A. Tinsley (one of whose stories, "Foxhound", became the basis for the movie International Crime (1938)) and Bruce Elliot.
2
Though he began as a reporter, Gibson had loved stage magic since childhood and collaborated with Harry Houdini, Howard Thurston, and Harry Blackstone. During the 1930s and 1940s, Gibson wrote for magazines, some self-help books, new magic books, and two novels. When he met (not his first wife) Pearl Raymond, a professional magician, he launched into writing novels in a serious way. Later in life, Gibson lectured on magic and earned two awards from the Academy of Magical Arts.
3
President William Howard Taft praised a story the young Gibson had won a literary prize for and predicted he would be a successful writer.
4
Wrote the stories about "The Shadow" under the name of Maxwell Grant, derived from the names of two magic dealers whom he knew.
5
Is compared with 'John Dickson Carr' for bringing to the mystery novel a sense of illusion and misdirection.
6
Created two popular characters: The Shadow, aka Lamont Cranston, aka Kent Allard, who heads an organization devoted to fighting crime and about whom Gibson wrote 283 novelettes; and Norgil, aka Loring, a stage magician.