Gilbert Cant (September 16, 1909 – August 1, 1982) was a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

-born American journalist. Cant arrived in the U.S. in 1934 and began working for the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...

'' in 1937. He was a war correspondent in the

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during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and wrote three books on the subject, ''The War at Sea'', ''America's Navy in World War II'', and ''The Great Pacific Victory''. He joined ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' in 1943 and was their medical editor from 1949 to 1969. Cant was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...

's fictional group of mystery solvers the

Black Widowers The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov for a series of sixty-six mystery fiction, mystery short story, stories that he started writing in 1971. Most of the stories were first published in ''Ellery Queen's Mys ...

. Cant himself was the model for the Thomas Trumbull character. After Cant died, Asimov dedicated the collection '' Banquets of the Black Widowers'' (1984) to his memory and to that of Frederic Dannay. In an essay in the September 4, 1972 issue of ''

'', Cant famously wrote of

Reuben Fine Reuben C. Fine (October 11, 1914 – March 26, 1993) was an American chess player, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology. He was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the mi ...

, "When Fine switched his major interest from chess to psychoanalysis, the result was a loss for chess—and a draw, at best, for psychoanalysis."Time Magazine, Sept. 4, 1972, Gilbert Cant, Time Essay: Why They Play: The Psychology of Chess, https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,910405,00.html

Bibliography

*''The War at Sea'' (1942) *''America's Navy in World War II'' (1943) *''This Is the Navy'' (1944), editor *''War on Japan'' (1945) *''The Great Pacific Victory from the Solomons to Tokyo'' (1946) *''Medical Research May Save Your Life!'' (1954) *''New Medicines for the Mind: Their Meaning and Promise'' (1955) *''Male Trouble: A New Focus on the Prostate'' (1976),

References

1909 births 1982 deaths American military writers American health and wellness writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers {{US-journalist-1900s-stub