Thu 23 Mar 2023
An Archived Pulp Fiction Review: MAXWELL GRANT – The Wealth Seeker.
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Reviews[9] Comments
MAXWELL GRANT – The Wealth Seeker. Jove, paperback, 1978. First published in The Shadow Magazine, 15 January 1934.
A wealthy philanthropist’s home is raided twice by criminals, and each time the gangsters are defeated, their leader being killed before being questioned. Since the man’s donations have always been anonymous, who has revealed his identity to the underworld?
There are only three suspects, and of course the obvious one is far too obvious. Walter Gibson, who wrote almost all of The Shadow stories, was terrible as a writer, but he was a dandy magician. He fooled me again, even though I was watching.
– Reprinted from Mystery.File.6, June 1980.
March 23rd, 2023 at 6:12 pm
I’ve read one of Gibson’s “The Shadow” series of paperbacks. If it must be ranked as ‘terrible’ then –for me at least –it’s terrible in a fun way.
The chief trait is: luridness. It’s queasy storytelling; like a fever-patient’s dream. Gibson’s characters have glowing eyes, they hover over the shoulder of their unsuspecting victims, snarling out vows of revenge. Villains glide down corridors soundlessly, or suddenly burst through doors with blood-curdling oaths.
But sometimes, this kind of over-wrought narration is exactly what I crave in a read. Such books have a place on my shelves.
March 23rd, 2023 at 6:35 pm
Looking back, I believe I have enjoyed more terrible books by terrible writers than I have great books by great writers. I am glad that I am not the only one.
March 23rd, 2023 at 8:20 pm
No, you’re definitely not alone, Jerry. You and I and everyone else reading this. I’m 100% sure of that.
March 23rd, 2023 at 7:55 pm
My favorite Gibson Shadow was GANGLAND’S DOOM where the Shadow invades a Road House filled with gangsters and leaps on a table .45’s blazing. It was just such a pulp moment it was hard to resist, which is true of many of the Shadow novels which, as mentioned here, were often constructed like one of the illusions Gibson designed for Houdini.
I preferred him as a writer in shorter form in the Norgil stories, but what the Shadow lacked in literary quality it made up for in atmosphere, energy, and cleverness.
Read in context as fast written pulp fiction designed to kill a little time pleasantly the Shadow usually delivered.
March 23rd, 2023 at 11:15 pm
I once sort of met Walter Gibson in person. I’m sure it was at one of the PulpCon’s I was able to get to when I was younger, probably one in New Jersey. It was a few years ago now.
In any case Mr. Gibson was there, perhaps as a guest, and he was asked to put on a short show as a magician. I sat in the front row, anxious to see if I could figure out the tricks he was doing. He was probably in his 80s, and when I thought he’d made a serous mistake, something like a hanky showing out of his sleeve, he must have seen my face.
He smiled and of course the “mistake” was all part of the act. He looked down, saw the handkerchief, pulled on it, and Voila!
As I said, it was all part of the act.
March 24th, 2023 at 12:33 am
I’m glad to read my sentiments echoed. I don’t feel as much a weirdo.
When it comes to writing as Gibson wrote, I sometimes crave it more than ever as time goes on.
I’m always wondering lately why everything has to be so logical and cold and programmed and arbitrary and precise. My god.
Gibson is not ‘realistic’ but neither was Kafka. It’s frankly, a relief!
March 24th, 2023 at 10:28 am
Well, there’s really good bubblegum, and rancid soufflés. I’ve certainly put down a number of the latter, while continuing with the former when in the right mood.
March 24th, 2023 at 2:18 pm
“…The low-down shocker is a decent and clean and honest-to-God form of literature, because it does deal with things that ought to occupy a man’s mind–a primitive chivalry, and damsels in distress, and virtue triumphant, and a wholesale slaughter of villains at the end, and a real fight running through it all. It mayn’t be true to life as we know it, but it ought to be true, and that’s why it’s the best stuff for people to read–if they must read about things instead of doing them.”
–Leslie Charteris, KNIGHT TEMPLAR (1930)
With a tip of the hat to Mike Stamm, who recently posted this on FictionMags.
March 28th, 2023 at 9:11 pm
One more item in defense of the phantasmagorical: the disappearance of the Big Top.
Maybe Clyde Beatty is still in operation? I don’t know for sure. Maybe some other regional circuses.
But no more Ringling Bros & Barnum & Bailey. No more Greatest Show on Earth.
I still can’t fathom it.