Maxwell Grant books

Norgil Reading Order

Shadow: The Master of Darkness Reading Order

Short Story Collections

Maxwell Grant was the house pen name used primarily by Walter B. Gibson for The Shadow, one of the most iconic characters in American pulp fiction. Gibson wrote 282 of the 325 Shadow novels published between 1931 and 1949, producing up to 10,000 words a day at the character’s peak popularity. The remaining novels were written by Theodore Tinsley, Bruce Elliot, and others under the same pen name.

The Shadow began as a narrator on a radio show before Street & Smith publishers asked Gibson to create a pulp magazine around the character. The first Shadow story, The Living Shadow, appeared on April 1, 1931, and within months the magazine went from quarterly to twice-monthly publication. Gibson was also a professional magician and magic historian, and that background in misdirection and performance fed directly into The Shadow’s methods.

Gibson later wrote additional Shadow novels in the 1960s for paperback reprint, and created the character Norgil the Magician, who drew more directly on his expertise in stage magic. His output under the Maxwell Grant name remains one of the most prolific achievements in American popular fiction.