Maxwell Grant was a pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

 used by the authors of The Shadow

The Shadow

The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in pulp magazines, then on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime-fighting vigilante in the pulps, which carried over to the airwaves as a "wealthy, young man about town"...

pulp magazine

Pulp magazine

Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

 stories.

Street and Smith Publications, the publishers of The Shadow, asked Walter B. Gibson

Walter B. Gibson

Walter Brown Gibson was an American author and professional magician, best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow...

, a writer hired to chronicle the Shadow's adventures, to create a pen name for the Shadow's author for several reasons, primarily so that numerous authors could be used to write the stories without confusing the readers. Gibson, who was 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 magic

Magic (illusion)

Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...

 dealers he knew, Maxwell Holden and U.F. Grant.

Three authors besides Gibson have used the Maxwell Grant pen name: Theodore Tinsley

Theodore Tinsley

Theodore Tinsley was an American author who wrote primarily mystery stories. Tinsley wrote 27 stories featuring The Shadow for "The Shadow Magazine" pulp magazine. He also created Carrie Cashin, one of the first female detectives in pulp fiction, who appeared in Street & Smith's Crimebuster pulp...

, who wrote 27 Shadow stories between 1936 and 1943; Bruce Elliott

Bruce Elliott

Bruce Elliott was an American writer who wrote mystery fiction, science fiction, and also worked as a television screenwriter. He was also a magician....

, who wrote 15 Shadow stories between 1946 and 1948; and Dennis Lynds

Michael Collins (author)

Michael Collins is the best-known pseudonym of Dennis Lynds , an American author who primarily wrote mystery fiction....

, who wrote nine Shadow paperback

Paperback

Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...

novels between 1964 and 1967.