Algernon Blackwood Popular Books

Algernon Blackwood Biography & Facts

Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary critic S. T. Joshi stated, "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's" and that his short story collection Incredible Adventures (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century". Life and work Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (now part of southeast London, then part of northwest Kent). Between 1871 and 1880, he lived at Crayford Manor House, Crayford and he was educated at Wellington College. His father, Sir Stevenson Arthur Blackwood, was a Post Office administrator; his mother, Harriet Dobbs, was the widow of the 6th Duke of Manchester. According to Peter Penzoldt, his father, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas." After Algernon read the work of a Hindu sage left behind at his parents' house, he developed an interest in Buddhism and other eastern philosophies. Blackwood had a varied career, working as a dairy farmer in Canada, where he also operated a hotel for six months, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, bartender, model, journalist for The New York Times, private secretary, businessman, and violin teacher. During his time in Canada, he also became one of the founding members of Toronto Theosophical Society in February 1891. Throughout his adult life, he was an occasional essayist for periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural. He was successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and later telling them on radio and television. He also wrote 14 novels, several children's books and a number of plays, most of which were produced, but not published. He was an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, as many of his stories reflect. To satisfy his interest in the supernatural, he joined The Ghost Club. He never married; according to his friends he was a loner, but also cheerful company. Jack Sullivan stated that "Blackwood's life parallels his work more neatly than perhaps that of any other ghost story writer. Like his lonely but fundamentally optimistic protagonists, he was a combination of mystic and outdoorsman; when he wasn't steeping himself in occultism, including Rosicrucianism, or Buddhism he was likely to be skiing or mountain climbing." Blackwood was a member of one of the factions of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as was his contemporary Arthur Machen. Cabalistic themes influence his novel The Human Chord. His two best-known stories are probably "The Willows" and "The Wendigo". He would also often write stories for newspapers at short notice, with the result that he was unsure exactly how many short stories he had written and there is no sure total. Though Blackwood wrote a number of horror stories, his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe. Good examples are the novels The Centaur, which reaches a climax with a traveller's sight of a herd of the mythical creatures; and Julius LeVallon and its sequel The Bright Messenger, which deal with reincarnation and the possibility of a new, mystical evolution of human consciousness. In correspondence with Peter Penzoldt, Blackwood wrote, My fundamental interest, I suppose, is signs and proofs of other powers that lie hidden in us all; the extension, in other words, of human faculty. So many of my stories, therefore, deal with extension of consciousness; speculative and imaginative treatment of possibilities outside our normal range of consciousness.... Also, all that happens in our universe is natural; under Law; but an extension of our so limited normal consciousness can reveal new, extra-ordinary powers etc., and the word "supernatural" seems the best word for treating these in fiction. I believe it possible for our consciousness to change and grow, and that with this change we may become aware of a new universe. A "change" in consciousness, in its type, I mean, is something more than a mere extension of what we already possess and know. Autobiography Blackwood wrote an autobiography of his early years, Episodes Before Thirty (1923), and there is a biography, Starlight Man, by Mike Ashley (ISBN 0-7867-0928-6). Death Blackwood died after several strokes. Officially his death on 10 December 1951 was from cerebral thrombosis, with arteriosclerosis as a contributing factor. He was cremated at Golders Green crematorium. A few weeks later his nephew took his ashes to Saanenmöser Pass in the Swiss Alps, and scattered them in the mountains that he had loved for more than forty years. Bibliography Novels By date of first publication: Jimbo: A Fantasy (1909) The Education of Uncle Paul (1909) The Human Chord (1910) The Centaur (1911) A Prisoner in Fairyland (1913); sequel to The Education of Uncle Paul The Extra Day (1915) Julius LeVallon (1916) The Wave (1916) The Promise of Air (1918) The Garden of Survival (1918) The Bright Messenger (1921); sequel to Julius LeVallon Episodes Before Thirty (1923) Dudley & Gilderoy: A Nonsense (1929) Children's novels: Sambo and Snitch (1927) The Fruit Stoners: Being the Adventures of Maria Among the Fruit Stoners (1934) Plays By date of first performance: The Starlight Express (1915), coauthored with Violet Pearn; incidental music by Edward Elgar; based on Blackwood's 1913 novel A Prisoner in Fairyland Karma a reincarnation play in prologue epilogue and three acts (1918), coauthored with Violet Pearn; The Crossing (1920a), coauthored with Bertram Forsyth; based on Blackwood's 1913 short story "Transition" Through the Crack (1920), coauthored with Violet Pearn; based on Blackwood's 1909 novel The Education of Uncle Paul and 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 short story "Max Hensig – Bacteriologist and Murderer" Short fiction collections By date of first publication: The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories (1906); original collection The Listener and Other Stories (1907); original collection John Silence (1908); original collection; reprinted with added preface, 1942 The Lost Valley and Other Stories (1910); original collection Pan's Garden: a Volume of Nature Stories (1912); original collection Ten Minute Stories (1914a); original collection Incredible Adventures (1914b); original collection Day and Night Stories (1917); original collection Wolves of God, and Other Fey Stories (1921), ; original collection Tongues of Fire and Other Sketches (1924); original collection Ancient Sorceries and Other Tales (1927a); selections from previous Blackwood collections The Dance of Death and Other Tales (1927b); sel.... 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