Walter B. Gibson

Walter Brown Gibson was an American author and professional magician, best known for his work on the pulp fiction character *The Shadow*. Under the house pen-name Maxwell Grant, he 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. As Andy Adams, (also a house pseudonym), Gibson is credited with writing at least five of the twelve novels in the *Biff Brewster* juvenile adventure and mystery series. Gibson wrote more than a hundred books on magic, psychic phenomena, true crime, mysteries, rope knots, yoga, hypnotism, and games. He served as a ghost writer for books on magic and spiritualism by Harry Houdini, Howard Thurston, Harry Blackstone, Sr., and Joseph Dunninger. He wrote the comic books and radio drama *Blackstone, the Magic Detective*. starring a fictionalized version of Harry Blackstone. Gibson introduced the "Chinese linking rings" trick in America, and invented the "Nickels to Dimes" trick that is still sold in magic stores to this day. He was married to Litzka R. Gibson, also a writer, and the couple lived in New York state.

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