Walter Brown Gibson

Walter Brown Gibson (born September 21, 1897 in Germantown ( Philadelphia ), Pennsylvania , † December 6, 1985 in Kingston , New York ) was an American journalist , writer and conjurer .

Life

Gibson was a son of Alfred Cornelius Gibson (1849-1931) and his wife May Morrell Whidden (1863-1941). He graduated from Colgate University and was a member of there fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon . In 1920 he was able to finish his studies and then worked as a journalist for several magazines and newspapers in Philadelphia. a. for the North American and The Evening Ledger . In addition to his daily journalistic work, he regularly created crossword puzzles .

Gibson married Litzka R. Gonser in Kingston and had a son, Robert (* 1925).

Walter Brown Gibson died twelve weeks after his 88th birthday in Kingston, New York and was buried in Montrepose Cemetery (Block D, Section 2, Lot 110).

reception

In 1928 Walter B. Gibson was offered the editor of the anthology True Strange Stories by the publisher Henry H. Macfadden (Macfadden Publications) . From 1930 Gibson put down his journalistic work and devoted himself only to his own literary work. In 1931 he invented the protagonist The Shadow and wrote over 300 stories for this superhero . He published this under his own name or under the pseudonym Maxwell Grant in various pulp magazines .

In addition to his fiction works, Gibson wrote as a ghostwriter for Harry Blackstone , Joseph Dunninger , Harry Houdini , Howard Thurston and The Amazing Kreskin, among others . Gibson published over a hundred works under his own name on hypnosis, magic, games, yoga, and sorcery. He was also under the publishing pseudonym Andy Adams together with Peter J. Harkins and Edward Pastore one of the authors of the youth book series Biff Brewster .

Works (selection)

Fiction

• The shadow. Scrapbook . Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York 1979, ISBN 0-15-681475-7 .
• Biff-Brewster cycle
  • Volume 1: Brazilian Gold Mine Mystery , 1960
  • Volume 4: Mystery of the Mexican Treasure , 1961
  • Volume 7: Mystery of the Ambush in India , 1962
  • Volume 9: Egyptian Scarab Mystery , 1963
  • Volume 13: Mystery of the Alpine Pass , 1965

Non-fiction

• Houdini's escapes and magic . Funk & Wagnalls, New York 1976, ISBN 0-308-10220-7 (reprint of the New York 1932 edition).
• The book of secrets. Miracles ancient and modern . Darling Books, Seattle 2008, ISBN 1-59583-359-5 (reprinted from Scranton edition, Pa. 1927).
• Professional magic for amateurs . Dover Books, New York 1974, ISBN 0-486-23012-0 (reprinted from New York 1947 edition).
• Blackstone's modern card tricks .
• Thurston's 200 tricks you can do . 1926
• What's new in magic . Bell Publ., New York 1956.
• Secrets of Magic .
  • German edition: Secrets of great magicians. Maier, Ravensburg 1979, ISBN 3-473-39517-X . (Translation: Hannelore Michalski).

literature

• Randolph J. Cox: Man of Magic and Mystery. A guide to the work of Walter B. Gibson . Scarecrow Press, New York 1988, ISBN 0-8108-2192-3 .
• Thomas J. Shimeld: Walter B. Gibson and The Shadow . MacFarland, Jefferson, NC 2004, ISBN 0-7864-1466-9 .
• Wolfgang Saxon: Walter B. Gibson, the creator of The Shadow, dead at 88 . In: The New York Times, December 7, 1985.

Web links

• Walter B. Gibson