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Shimeld, Thomas J. Walter B. Gibson and The Shadow. 2nd ed. Jefferson, London: McFarland, 2005. Added by: joachim (26/11/2009, 12:32) |
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| Resource type: Book Language: en: English ID no. (ISBN etc.): 978-0-7864-2361-3 BibTeX citation key: Shimeld2003 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "The Shadow", Biography, Gibson. Walter B. Creators: Shimeld Publisher: McFarland (Jefferson, London) |
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“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? … The Shadow knows!” And who knew The Shadow better than his creator, Walter B. Gibson. Relatively few people have heard of Gibson, but many more are familiar with The Shadow having heard the program on the Blue Coal Radio Program in the 1930s and read the Street & Smith Shadow novels. Walter B. Gibson’s life and career come out from behind The Shadow in this biography. It covers his youth in Philadelphia, his development as a writer and magician, his wives, including the third, (Litzka, who was a harpist and magician in her own right), his time living in Maine and upstate New York, and his later years and death. In addition to being credited with creating The Shadow (he used the pseudonym Maxwell Grant), Gibson wrote 187 books, contributed 668 articles to periodicals, created 283 stories for The Shadow Magazine, wrote 48 separate syndicated feature columns, reported the adventures of The Shadow and Blackstone the magician in 394 comic books and newspaper strips, and helped develop 147 radio scripts and many other works under numerous pseudonyms. Gibson has invented many widely used magic tricks and traveled with and befriended Harry Houdini, Howard Thurston, Harry Blackstone, Sr., and Joseph Dunninger. Table of Contents Foreword ix Preface 1 1. Setting the Scene of an Extraordinary Life 7 2. The Magical Years of Youth 17 3. Shaping the Future 24 4. Howard Thurston 38 5. Harry Houdini’s Final Escape 47 6. Casting the Shadow 59 7. Who Knows the Shadow? 74 8. Shadows of the Shadow 84 9. Harry Blackstone, Sr.—Lighting the Floating Bulb of Friendship 98 10. Psychic Phenomena and Mental Magic 106 11. Litzka Raymond Gibson—A Uniting Force of Magic 120 12. A Fading Shadow 137 Afterword 152 Appendix I: Alfred Gibson’s Account of the Lincoln Conspiracy Trials 161 Appendix II: Gibson Diary Extract, 1919 165 Notes 171 Bibliography 181 Index 185 Added by: joachim |