Walter Gibson aka. Maxwell Grant

Today, for all the folks out there who read this blog, you are going to meet a man who I have come to admire and respect through reading his books. Walter Gibson ladies and gentlemen, or as he was better known back in the 1930's, Maxwell Grant. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1897. He graduated from Colgate University in 1920, and afterwards began working at newspapers for his native city as a reporter and cross-word puzzle writer. In 1931, due to the popularity of the Shadow's character on the Detective Story Hour radio show, the sponsors, Street and Smith Publishing, asked Gibson to translate the character into print, and so Gibson, under the house name of Maxwell Grant, published the first 75,000 word Shadow story, which appeared in the first quarterly Shadow pulp magazine. The magazine's popularity grew, causing it to go to a twice-a-month printing, and leading Gibson to produce 24 novels a year. A compulsive writer, Gibson wrote 282 of the 325 Shadow novels, which was an estimated 1,680,000 words. In addition, Gibson was a accomplished magician and wrote over a hundred books on magic, rope tricks etc. He also ghosted several books for magicians Harry Houdini, Howard Thurston, Harry Blackstone and Joseph Dunninger. Gibson was also responsible for introducing many foreign magic tricks to the American public and published several books on them. Walter died on December 6, 1985. Mr. Gibson, many may not know who you are until now or what your legacy is, but the Shadow knows.