xi, [3], 207, [3] pages. Introduction: In Retrospect by Walter Gibson. This

xi, [3], 207, [3] pages. Introduction: In Retrospect by Walter Gibson. This was the first selection of Norgil stories that emerged from a '40-year seclusion'. Maxwell Grant was a pen name used by the authors of The Shadow pulp magazine stories from the 1930s to 1960s. Street & Smith, the publishers of The Shadow, hired author Walter B. Gibson to create and write the series based on popular interest in the character who was first used as a radio narrator. However, Gibson was asked to use a pen name. The pen name was used primarily so numerous authors could write the stories without confusing readers. Another factor was how Gibson, also a nonfiction writer, wanted to use a pen name for his fiction. He adopted the pen name Maxwell Grant, taking the name from two stage magic dealers he knew: Maxwell Holden and U.F. Grant. Gibson wrote the vast majority of Shadow stories, usually two short novels per month for The Shadow magazine. Four authors besides Gibson have used the Maxwell Grant pen name: Theodore Tinsley, who wrote 27 Shadow stories between 1936 and 1943; Lester Dent, who wrote one story, The Golden Vulture, in 1938; Bruce Elliott, who wrote 15 Shadow stories between 1946 and 1948; and Dennis Lynds, who wrote nine Shadow paperback novels between 1964 and 1967. The comic book series The Shadow: Year One, published by Dynamite Entertainment, features a character by the name of "Maxwell Grant". The character is a journalist, who uncovers the identity of the Shadow. However, rather than exposing him, Grant offers to chronicle his adventures. The contents include The Ghost that Came Back; The Silver Venus; Double-Barreled Magic; Magicians Choice; Old Crime Week; Murder in Wax; The Mystery of Moloch; and $5, 000 Reward. Some of these stories appeared previously in periodicals. Walter Brown Gibson (September 12, 1897 – December 6, 1985) was an American writer and professional magician, best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow, and as a ghost-writer for many of his friend Harry Houdini's books. Gibson, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant, wrote 282 of the original 325 'The Shadow' novels/novellas during the 1930s/1940s, writing up to "10, 000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age. He authored several novels in the Biff Brewster juvenile series of the 1960s. Gibson was graduated from Colgate University in 1920, and began working "for newspapers in his native Philadelphia as a reporter and crossword-puzzle writer, " specifically for The North American, and later The Evening Ledger. In 1923–1924, he provided illustrated single-page articles for Science and Invention magazine describing various tricks and puzzles. In 1927, he founded and edited the pulp magazine Tales of Magic and Mystery, which ran for five issues, ending in April 1928. In 1928 Gibson was asked by Macfadden Publications to edit True Strange Stories; he did, for a time, identified as Walter Scofield, commuting back and forth to New York. In 1931, after submitting some crime stories for Detective Story Magazine, he was asked by publishers Street & Smith to produce the first print adventure of The Shadow, who at that stage was merely a voice, the mysterious narrator of the Street & Smith-sponsored Detective Stories radio drama. It was Gibson who created all the mythos and characterization of The Shadow, including his alter ego of wealthy playboy Lamont Cranston. 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. Gibson 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...