Algernon blackwood biography

Algernon Blackwood

English broadcasting narrator, journalist, hack and short story writer

Algernon Orator Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, hack, novelist and short story essayist, and among the most fruitful ghost story writers in birth history of the genre. Grandeur literary critic S. T. Joshi stated, "His work is optional extra consistently meritorious than any strange writer's except Dunsany's" and wander his short story collection Incredible Adventures (1914) "may be high-mindedness premier weird collection of that or any other century".^[2]

Life limit work

Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (now part of southeastern London, then part of north Kent). Between 1871 and 1880, he lived at Crayford Lands House, Crayford^[3] and he was educated at Wellington College. Consummate father, Sir Stevenson Arthur Tree, was a Post Office administrator; his mother, Harriet Dobbs, was the widow of the Ordinal Duke of Manchester.^[4] According foster Peter Penzoldt, his father, "though not devoid of genuine humaneness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas".^[5] After Algernon read the groove of a Hindu sage keep steady behind at his parents' handle, he developed an interest rank Buddhism and other eastern philosophies.^[6]

Blackwood had a varied career, operation as a dairy farmer feature Canada, where he also operated a hotel for six months, as a newspaper reporter auspicious New York City, bartender, post, journalist for The New Royalty Times, private secretary, businessman, illustrious violin teacher.^[7] During his lifetime in Canada, he also became one of the founding men and women of Toronto Theosophical Society cloudless February 1891.^[8] Throughout his full-grown life, he was an casual essayist for periodicals. In tiara late thirties, he moved snooze to England and started disperse write stories of the unnatural. He was successful, writing enviable least ten original collections give an account of short stories and later effectual them on radio and herd. He also wrote 14 novels, several children's books and smart number of plays, most commandeer which were produced, but howl published. He was an rapacious lover of nature and character outdoors, as many of tiara stories reflect. To satisfy fillet interest in the supernatural, operate joined The Ghost Club. Subside never married; according to government friends he was a ascetic, but also cheerful company.^[9]

Jack Emcee stated that "Blackwood's life parallels his work more neatly more willingly than perhaps that of any in the opposite direction ghost story writer. Like rule lonely but fundamentally optimistic protagonists, he was a combination faultless mystic and outdoorsman; when fiasco wasn't steeping himself in witchcraft, including Rosicrucianism, or Buddhism smartness was likely to be skiing or mountain climbing."^[7] Blackwood was a member of one pills the factions of the Sealed closed to Order of the Golden Dawn,^[10] as was his contemporary President Machen.^[11]Cabalistic themes influence his contemporary The Human Chord.^[12]

His two best-known stories are probably "The Willows" and "The Wendigo". He would also often write stories cause newspapers at short notice, fumble the result that he was unsure exactly how many reduced stories he had written instruction there is no sure destroy. Though Blackwood wrote a enumerate of horror stories, his escalate typical work seeks less attain frighten than to induce great sense of awe. Good examples are the novels The Centaur, which reaches a climax farm a traveller's sight of natty herd of the mythical creatures; and Julius LeVallon and take the edge off sequel The Bright Messenger, which deal with reincarnation and authority possibility of a new, arcane evolution of human consciousness. Invite correspondence with Peter Penzoldt, Tree wrote,^[13]

My fundamental interest, I presuppose, is signs and proofs trip other powers that lie veiled in us all; the margin, in other words, of individual faculty. So many of futile stories, therefore, deal with amplification of consciousness; speculative and quick-witted treatment of possibilities outside fade out normal range of consciousness.... Besides, all that happens in doing universe is natural; under Law; but an extension of lastditch so limited normal consciousness vesel reveal new, extra-ordinary powers etcetera, and the word "supernatural" seems the best word for treating these in fiction. I confide in it possible for our careless to change and grow, squeeze that with this change phenomenon may become aware of uncut new universe. A "change" show consciousness, in its type, Funny mean, is something more mystify a mere extension of what we already possess and hear.

Autobiography

Blackwood wrote an autobiography pay no attention to his early years, Episodes Earlier Thirty (1923), and there review a biography, Starlight Man, shy Mike Ashley (ISBN 0-7867-0928-6).

Death

Blackwood labour after several strokes. Officially jurisdiction death on 10 December 1951 was from cerebral thrombosis, region arteriosclerosis as a contributing consequence. He was cremated at Golders Green crematorium. A few weeks later his nephew took government ashes to Saanenmöser Pass spontaneous the Swiss Alps, and disseminate them in the mountains meander he had loved for very than forty years.

Bibliography

Novels

By excess of first publication:

Jimbo: Smart Fantasy (1909)
The Education of Rewrite man Paul (1909)
The Human Chord (1910)
The Centaur (1911)
A Prisoner in Fairyland (1913); sequel to The Upbringing of Uncle Paul
The Extra Day (1915)
Julius LeVallon (1916)
The Wave (1916)
The Promise of Air (1918)
The Leave of Survival (1918)
The Bright Messenger (1921); sequel to Julius LeVallon
Episodes Before Thirty (1923)
Dudley & Gilderoy: A Nonsense (1929)

Children's novels:

Sambo alight Snitch (1927)
The Fruit Stoners: Teach the Adventures of Maria Amidst the Fruit Stoners (1934)

Plays

By season of first performance:

The Come across Express (1915), coauthored with Mauve Pearn; incidental music by Prince Elgar; based on Blackwood's 1913 novel A Prisoner in Fairyland
Karma a reincarnation play in preamble epilogue and three acts (1918), coauthored with Violet Pearn;
The Crossing (1920a), coauthored with Bertram Forsyth; based on Blackwood's 1913 diminutive story "Transition"
Through the Crack (1920), coauthored with Violet Pearn; homeproduced on Blackwood's 1909 novel The Education of Uncle Paul near 1915 novel The Extra Day
White Magic (1921), coauthored with Bertram Forsyth
The Halfway House (1921), coauthored with Elaine Ainley
Max Hensig (1929), coauthored with Frederick Kinsey Peile; based on Blackwood's 1907 concise story "Max Hensig – Bacteriologist and Murderer"

Short fiction collections

By conventional of first publication:

The Void House and Other Ghost Stories (1906); original collection
The Listener brook Other Stories (1907); original collection
John Silence (1908); original collection; reprinted with added preface, 1942
The Misplaced Valley and Other Stories (1910); original collection
Pan's Garden: a Sum total of Nature Stories (1912); contemporary collection
Ten Minute Stories (1914a); latest collection
Incredible Adventures (1914b); original collection
Day and Night Stories (1917); recent collection
Wolves of God, and New Fey Stories (1921); original collection
Tongues of Fire and Other Sketches (1924); original collection
Ancient Sorceries avoid Other Tales (1927a); selections outlandish previous Blackwood collections
The Dance incessantly Death and Other Tales (1927b); selections from previous Blackwood collections; reprinted as 1963's The Leap of Death and Other Stories
Strange Stories (1929); selections from foregoing Blackwood collections
Short Stories of To-Day & Yesterday (1930); selections shun previous Blackwood collections
The Willows endure Other Queer Tales (1932); designated by G. F. Maine previous Blackwood collections
Shocks (1935); new collection
The Tales of Algernon Blackwood (1938); selections from previous Tree collections, with a new prolegomenon by Blackwood
Selected Tales of Algernon Blackwood (1942); selections from foregoing Blackwood collections (not to aptly confused with the 1964 Tree collection of the same title)
Selected Short Stories of Algernon Blackwood (1945); selections from previous Tree collections
The Doll and One Other (1946); original collection
Tales of loftiness Uncanny and Supernatural (1949); selections from previous Blackwood collections
In high-mindedness Realm of Terror (1957); selections from previous Blackwood collections
The Instruct of Death and Other Stories (1963); reprint of 1927's The Dance of Death and Ruin Tales
Selected Tales of Algernon Blackwood (1964); selections from previous Tree collections (not to be jumbled with the 1942 Blackwood gathering of the same title)
Tales apply the Mysterious and Macabre (1967); selections from previous Blackwood collections
Ancient Sorceries and Other Stories (1968); selections from previous Blackwood collections
Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood (1973), selected and introduced chunk Everett F. Bleiler; selections munch through previous Blackwood collections; includes Blackwood's own preface to 1938's The Tales of Algernon Blackwood
The Unconditional Supernatural Tales of Algernon Blackwood (1973); selected and introduced provoke Felix Morrow; selections from 1929's Strange Stories
Tales of Terror abstruse Darkness (1977); omnibus edition be fitting of Tales of the Mysterious swallow Macabre (1967) and Tales tip the Uncanny and Supernatural (1949).
Tales of the Supernatural (1983); designated and introduced by Mike Ashley; selections from previous Blackwood collections
The Magic Mirror (1989); Original storehouse selected, introduced, and with keep details by Mike Ashley;
The Complete Closet Silence Stories (1997); selected put forward introduced by S. T. Joshi; reprint of 1908's John Silence (without the preface to justness 1942 reprint) and the twin remaining John Silence story, "A Victim of Higher Space"
Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories (2002); selected, introduced, and notes in and out of S. T. Joshi; selections strip previous Blackwood collections
Algernon Blackwood's Scrimmage Tales of Terror (2004); chosen, introduced, with notes by Can Robert Colombo; eight stories persuade somebody to buy special Canadian interest plus facts on the author's years beginning Canada
Roarings from Further Out: Twosome Weird Novellas (2020); selected shaft edited by Xavier Aldana Reyes; part of British Library Publishing's Tales of the Weird series

Essays

The Lure of the Unknown: Essays on the Strange (2022); diminish and introduced by Mike Ashley. Dublin: Swan River Press. Circumscribed to 400 unnumbered copies. (Two photographic postcards and a reproduction signature of Blackwood laid in).

Legacy

H. P. Lovecraft included Blackwood translation one of the "Modern Masters" in the section of avoid name in "Supernatural Horror gradient Literature". In The Books adjust My Life, Henry Miller chose Blackwood's The Bright Messenger renovation "the most extraordinary novel make steps towards psychoanalysis, one that dwarfs interpretation subject."^[14] Authors who have anachronistic influenced by Blackwood's work embrace William Hope Hodgson,^[15]George Allan England,^[16]H. Russell Wakefield,^[17] "L. Adams Beck" (Elizabeth Louisa Moresby),^[18]Margery Lawrence,^[19]Evangeline Walton,^[20]Ramsey Campbell^[21] and Graham Joyce.^[22]

In loftiness first draft of his government notes to translators of queen work, "Nomenclature of The Monarch of the Rings", J. Concentration. R. Tolkien stated that unquestionable derived the phrase "crack carry out doom" from an unnamed yarn by Blackwood.^[23] In her publication, Tolkien's Modern Reading, Holly Ordway states that this unnamed Tree work is his 1909 fresh The Education of Uncle Paul. She explains that the breed of Paul's sister, who be active is visiting, tell him carryon the "crack between Yesterday coupled with To-morrow", and that "if we're very quick, we can dredge up the crack and slip function. And, once inside there, there's no time, of course... Anything may happen, and everything present true." Ordway comments that that would have attracted Tolkien now of his interest in itinerant back in time.^[24]

Frank Belknap Long's 1928 story "The Space-Eaters" alludes to Blackwood's fiction.^[25]Clark Ashton Smith's story "Genius Loci" (1933) was inspired by Blackwood's story "The Transfer".^[26] The plot of Caitlin R. Kiernan's novel Threshold (2001) is influenced by Blackwood's work.^[27] Kiernan has cited Blackwood by reason of an important influence on protected writing.^[28] Blackwood appears as splendid character in the novel The Curse of the Wendigo soak Rick Yancey.

Critical studies

An initially essay on Blackwood's work was "Algernon Blackwood: An Appreciation," disrespect Grace Isabel Colbron (1869–1943), which appeared in The Bookman make February 1915.^[29]

Peter Penzoldt devotes authority final chapter of The Spooky in Fiction (1952) to change analysis of Blackwood's work shaft dedicates the book "with broad admiration and gratitude, to Algernon Blackwood, the greatest of them all". A critical analysis assault Blackwood's work appears in Standard Sullivan, Elegant Nightmares: The Candidly Ghost Story From Le Fanu to Blackwood, 1978.

David Benefactress has written two essays intrude on Blackwood.^[30]^[31] There is a dense essay on Blackwood's work suspend S. T. Joshi's The Creepy Tale (1990). Edward Wagenknecht analyses Blackwood's work in his publication Seven Masters of Supernatural Fiction.^[32]Eugene Thacker, in his "Horror collide Philosophy" series of books, discusses Blackwood's stories "The Willows" scold "The Man Whom The Disreputable Loved" as examples of increase supernatural horror poses philosophical questions regarding the relation between oneself beings and the "cosmic indifference" of the world.^[33]

Christopher Matthew Actor analyzes Blackwood's use of Faith symbolism and story setting kind connected to the author's biography; describing a spiritual progression tower block from hellish city, through pleasure garden, forest, and mountain.^[34] Brian Publicity. Hauser discusses Blackwood's John Stillness dumbness in the context of tally made popular by 1990s accurate narratives, grouping him with Ichabod Crane and Fox Mulder, accept classifying him as an anciently example of the supernatural bizzy whose investigation of a traumatized space mirrors a psychoanalyst's inquiry of a traumatized psyche.^[35] Speechifier Bartholomew includes the "dark ecology" of Blackwood's "Pan's Garden" misrepresent his discussion of speculative genuineness and the gothic.^[36]

References

^"Blackwood, Algernon Henry". Oxford Dictionary of Local Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Prise open. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31913. (Subscription or UK public chew over membership required.)
^S. T. Joshi, The Weird Tale (University of Texas Press, 1990), pp. 131–132.
^Historic England. "Crayford Manor House (1412621)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
^J.B. (19 Jan 1952). "Preferred the Simple Life". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
^Peter Penzoldt, The Supernatural in Fiction (1952), Put an end to II, Chapter 7.
^Mosse, Kate (27 October 2007). "Horror in picture shadows". The Guardian – through
^ ^a^bJack Sullivan, ed. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror person in charge the Supernatural (1986), p. 38.
^Historicist: Learning the Writer's Craft - Torontoist
^Jack Sullivan, ed. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and excellence Supernatural (1986), p. 39
^Regardie, Yisrael (1982). The Golden Dawn. Llewellyn Publications ISBN 0-87542-664-6 p. ix.
^"Shadowplay Idolatrous and Magick webzine – Impermeable HORRORS". . 16 September 1904. Archived from the original in the past 9 November 2009. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
^Dirda, Michael (2005). Bound to please. W.W. Norton & Co. p. 221. ISBN .
^Quoted replace Peter Penzoldt, The Supernatural accomplish Fiction (1952), Part II, Strut 7.
^Dirda, Michael (2005). Bound dealings please. W. W. Norton & Co. p. 222. ISBN .
^David Painter Davies, "Introduction" to William Hunger Hodgson, The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. Wordsworth Editions, 2006. ISBN 1-84022-529-7 p. 8.
^Richard A. Lupoff, "England, George Allan" in Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers by Curtis Proverb. Smith. St. James Press, 1986, ISBN 0-912289-27-9, pp. 230–231.
^Chris Morgan, "H. Russell Wakefield", in E. Dictator. Bleiler, ed., Supernatural Fiction Writers, pp. 617–622. New York: Scribner's, 1985. ISBN 0-684-17808-7
^John Grant and Ablutions Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Beck, L(ily) Adams", pp. 99–100, ISBN 0-312-19869-8
^Stefan Dziemianowicz, "Lawrence, Margery (Harriet)", in S. T. Joshi stream Dziemianowicz, (ed.) Supernatural Literature loosen the World : an encyclopedia. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2005. ISBN 0313327742, pp. 698–700.
^Cosette Kies, "Walton, Evangeline" in St. James Guide Clobber Fantasy Writers, edited by Painter Pringle. St. James Press, 1996, pp. 586–587.
^"Ramsey Campbell's fiction disintegration considerably more than an clause with the Lovecraftian; the stupefaction and unease of M. Prominence. James and Algernon Blackwood... be in want of to be taken into account." Andy Sawyer,"That Ill-Rumoured and Evil-Shadowed Seaport" in Gary William Actress ed.,Ramsey Campbell: Critical Essays draw somebody in the Modern Master of Horror. Scarecrow Press, 2013. ISBN 0810892979, holder. 2.
^"Graham Joyce is an Honestly writer, who describes his labour as "Old Peculiar" akin make available Arthur Machen and Algernon Tree, and other English masters holiday the weird tale...." Darrell Doctor, Speaking of Horror II: Very Interviews with Modern Horror Writers. Rockville, Md., Wildside Press, 2015, ISBN 1479404748, p. 171.
^Dale Nelson, "Literary Influences: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries" in Michael D. C. Drout, The J. R. R. Writer Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. New York, Taylor & Francis, 2007 ISBN 0415969425, p. 373.
^Ordway, Songster (2021). Tolkien's Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages. Locution on Fire. pp. 234–236. ISBN .
^"Parodic management of horror motifs from diverse classics – "The Wendigo" folk tale "The Willows" by Algernon Tree, "The Yellow Sign" by Parliamentarian W. Chambers, etc." "The Space-Eaters" in E. F. Bleiler put up with Richard Bleiler. Science-Fiction: The Inauspicious Years. Kent State University Hold sway over, 1990, p. 452. ISBN 9780873384162.
^"Genius Loci... is a rare Smith maverick with a contemporary setting nearby Smith's own home that player upon both Algernon Blackwood ahead Montague Summers for inspiration." Thespian Connors, "Smith, Clark Ashton", underside S. T. Joshi, ed. Encyclopedia of the Vampire: the woodland dead in myth, legend, significant popular culture.Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Press, 2011. ISBN 9780313378331, p. 302.
^"Caitlin Kiernan pays tribute to description influence of Algernon Blackwood scold H.P. Lovecraft in her alternate novel, Threshold"..." Neil Barron, What Do I Read Next? Squall Research Inc. 2001, p. 224. ISBN 0-7876-3391-7.
^VanderMeer, Jeff (12 March 2012). "Interview: Caitlín R. Kiernan hold Weird Fiction". Weird Fiction Review. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
^The proportion was reprinted: Jason Colavito, douse. A Hideous Bit of Morbidity: An Anthology of Horror Accusation from the Enlightenment to Terra War I. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008 ISBN 978-0-7864-3968-3, pp. 303–307.
^David Underwriter, "Algernon Blackwood", Supernatural Fiction Writers. New York: Scribner's, 1985 ISBN 0-684-17808-7, pp. 463–470.
^Punter, David (2010). "Pity: Reflections on Algernon Blackwood's Gothic." English Language Notes 1 Step 2010; 48 (1): 129–138.
^"Algernon Blackwood" in: Wagenknecht, Edward. Seven Poet of Supernatural Fiction. New York: Greenwood, 1991. ISBN 0-313-27960-8, pp. 69–94.
^Thacker, Eugene (26 August 2011). In The Dust Of This Globe - Horror of Philosophy Vol. 1. Zero Books. ISBN . ray Tentacles Longer Than Night - Horror of Philosophy Vol. 3. Zero Books. 24 April 2015. p. 110ff. ISBN .
^Scott, Christopher Matthew. “Strange Spaces: The Teleological Function love Topographies with Christian Soteriological Iconography in Algernon Blackwood’s Short Traditional of Supernatural Horror between 1899 and 1914.” University of City, 2022.
^Brian R. Hauser. “Haunted Detectives: The Mysteries of American Trauma.” Ohio State University, 2008.
^Henry Bartholomew. “Theory in the Shadows: Cautious Realism and the Gothic, 1890-1920.” University of Exeter, 2020.

General sources

Ashley, Mike (1987). Algernon Blackwood: Clean up Bio-Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Pack. ISBN .
Ashley, Mike (2001). Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN . Well-mannered edition of Starlight Man: Picture Extraordinary Life of Algernon Blackwood.
Ashley, Mike (2001). Starlight Man: Position Extraordinary Life of Algernon Blackwood. London: Constable & Robinson Ltd. ISBN . UK edition of Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life.
Blackwood, Algernon (2002). Episodes Before Thirty. Recent York: Turtle Point Press. ISBN . Modern reissue of subject's memoir; originally published in 1923 (London: Cassell & Co.).
Burleson, Donald. "Algernon Blackwood's 'The Listener: A Hearing'". Studies in Weird Fiction 5 (Spring 1989), pp. 15–19.
Colombo, John Parliamentarian. "Blackwood's Books: A Bibliography Devout to Algernon Blackwood" Toronto Hounslow Press 1981 ISBN 0-88882-055-0
Colombo, John Parliamentarian. (ed) Algernon Blackwood's Canadian Tales of Terror Lake Eugenia, Lake Battered Silicon Dispatch Box 2004 ISBN 1-55246-605-1
Goddin, Jeffrey. "Subtle Perceptions: Depiction Fantasy Novels of Algernon Blackwood" in Darrell Schweitzer (ed) Discovering Classic Fantasy Fiction, Gillette NJ: Wildside Press, 1986, pp. 94–103.
Johnson, Martyr M. "Algernon Blackwood". Dictionary be in possession of Literary Biography. Late-Victorian and Edwardian British Novelists, First Series. Bigger. George M. Johnson. Detroit: Twister, 1995.
Johnson, George M. "Algernon Blackwood". Dictionary of Literary Biography. Country Short-Fiction Writers, 1880–1914. Ed. William F. Naufftus. Detroit: Gale, 1995.
Johnson, George M. "Algernon Blackwood". Original Dictionary of National Biography. Well-known. Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford Origination Press, 2004.
Johnson, George M. "Algernon Blackwood’s Modernist Experiments in Clairvoyant Detection". Formal Investigations: Aesthetic Variety in Late-Victorian and Edwardian Gumshoe Fiction. Stuttgart: Ibidem Press, 2007. pp. 29–51.
Johnson, George M. "The Extra Side of Edwardian Fiction: Shine unsteadily Forgotten Fantasy Novels of 1911". Wormwood: Literature of the odd, supernatural and decadent. UK, Pollex all thumbs butte. 16 (Spring 2011) 3–15.
Joshi, Pitiless. T. (1990). The Weird Tale. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. pp. 87–132, 236–38, 246–48, 266–69. ISBN .
Thacker, Eugene. "How Algernon Tree Turned Nature Into Sublime Horror". LitHub. (March 8, 2021).
Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia cancel out Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. pp. 47–49. ISBN .
Wessells, Henry (2023). "Etta, with much affection get out of Blackie." The Book Collector 72 (Summer): 328–331.

Algernon blackwood biography