Walter B. Gibson

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

Life

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

Gibson married in Kingston Litzka R. Gonser and had with her ​​a son, Robert ( b. 1925 ).

Walter Brown Gibson died twelve weeks after his 88th birthday in Kingston (New York) and found on the Montrepose Cemetery ( Block D, Section 2, Lot 110 ), his final resting place.

Reception

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

In addition to his works of fiction Gibson wrote as a ghost writer among other things, Harry Blackstone, Joseph Dunninger, Harry Houdini, Howard Thurston and The Amazing Kreskin. Under his own name Gibson has published over a hundred books on hypnosis, magic, games, yoga and magic. He was also under the Verlagspseudonym Andy Adams with Peter J. Harkins and Edward Pastore one of the authors of the YA series Biff Brewster.

Works (selection)

  • 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 ( Nachdr d ed New York 1932).
  • The book of secrets. Miracles ancient and modern. Darling Books, Seattle, 2008 ISBN 1-59583-359-5 ( Nachdr d ed Scranton, Pa. 1927).
  • Professional magic for amateurs. Dover Books, New York 1974, ISBN 0-486-23012-0 ( Nachdr d ed New York 1947).
  • 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 great magician. Maier, Ravensburg 1979, ISBN 3-473-39517- X. (Translation: Hannelore Michalski ).
Germantown, Philadelphia Integrated Authority File
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