Arthur Machen Popular Books

Arthur Machen Biography & Facts

Arthur Machen ( or ; 3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan (1890; 1894) has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror, with Stephen King describing it as "Maybe the best [horror story] in the English language." He is also well known for "The Bowmen", a short story that was widely read as fact, creating the legend of the Angels of Mons. Biography Early years Machen was born Arthur Llewelyn Jones in Caerleon, Monmouthshire. The house of his birth, opposite the Olde Bull Inn in The Square at Caerleon is marked with a commemorative blue plaque. The landscape of Monmouthshire (which he usually referred to by the name of the medieval Welsh kingdom, Gwent), with its associations of Celtic, Roman, and medieval history, made a powerful impression on him, and his love of it is at the heart of many of his works. Machen was descended from a long line of clergymen, the family having originated in Carmarthenshire. In 1864, when Machen was two, his father John Edward Jones, became vicar of the parish of Llanddewi Fach with Llandegveth, about five miles north of Caerleon, and Machen was brought up at the rectory there. Jones had adopted his wife's maiden name, Machen, to inherit a legacy, legally becoming "Jones-Machen"; his son was baptised under that name and later used a shortened version of his full name, Arthur Machen, as a pen name.Local historian and folklorist Fred Hando suggests Machen's early interest in the occult came from an article of alchemy in a volume of Household Words in his father's library. Hando recounts Machen's other early reading: He bought De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater at Pontypool Road Railway Station, The Arabian Nights at Hereford Railway Station, and borrowed Don Quixote from Mrs. Gwyn, of Llanfrechfa Rectory. In his father's library he found also the Waverley Novels, a three-volume edition of the Glossary of Gothic Architecture, and an early volume of Tennyson. At the age of eleven, Machen boarded at Hereford Cathedral School, where he received an good education. His family could not afford for him to attend university, and Machen went to London, where he sat, but failed, exams for entrance to medical school. He displayed some literary promise and in 1881 published a long poem on the subject of the Eleusinian Mysteries. He attempted to make a living as a journalist, a publisher's clerk, and a children's tutor, devoting his evenings to writing and solitary walks.In 1884 he published his second work, the pastiche The Anatomy of Tobacco, and secured work with the publisher and bookseller George Redway as a cataloguer and magazine editor. This led to further work as a translator from French, translating the Heptaméron of Marguerite de Navarre, Le Moyen de Parvenir (Fantastic Tales) of Béroalde de Verville, and the Memoirs of Casanova.In 1887, the year his father died, Machen married Amelia (Amy) Hogg, an unconventional music teacher with a passion for the theatre, who had literary friends in London's bohemian circles. Hogg had introduced Machen to the writer and occultist A. E. Waite, who was to become one of Machen's closest friends. Machen also made the acquaintance of other literary figures, such as M. P. Shiel and Edgar Jepson. Soon after his marriage, Machen began to receive a series of legacies from Scottish relatives that allowed him to gradually devote more time to writing. Literary decadence in the 1890s Around 1890 Machen began to publish in literary magazines, writing stories influenced by the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, some of which used gothic or fantastic themes. This led to his first major success, The Great God Pan. It was published in 1894 by John Lane in the noted Keynotes Series, which was part of the growing aesthetic movement of the time. Machen's story was widely denounced for its sexual and horrific content and consequently sold well, going into a second edition. Machen next produced The Three Impostors, a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895. The novel and the stories within it were eventually to be regarded as among Machen's best works. However, following the scandal surrounding Oscar Wilde later that year, Machen's association with works of decadent horror made it difficult for him to find a publisher for new works. Thus, though he would write some of his greatest works over the next few years, some were published much later. These included The Hill of Dreams, Hieroglyphics, A Fragment of Life, the story "The White People", and the stories which make up Ornaments in Jade. Tragedy and acting: 1899–1910 In 1899, Machen's wife Amy died of cancer after a long period of illness. This had a devastating effect on Machen. He only gradually recovered from his loss over the next year, partially through his close friendship with A. E. Waite. It was through Waite's influence that Machen joined at this time the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, though Machen's interest in the organization was not lasting or very deep. Machen's recovery was further helped by his sudden change of career, becoming an actor in 1901 and a member of Frank Benson's company of travelling players, a profession which took him round the country. This led in 1903 to a second marriage, to Dorothie Purefoy Hudleston, which brought Machen much happiness. Machen managed to find a publisher in 1902 for his earlier written work Hieroglyphics, an analysis of the nature of literature, which concluded that true literature must convey "ecstasy". In 1906 Machen's literary career began once more to flourish as the book The House of Souls collected his most notable works of the nineties and brought them to a new audience. He also published a satirical work, Dr Stiggins: His Views and Principles, generally considered one of his weakest works.Machen also was at this time investigating Celtic Christianity, the Holy Grail and King Arthur. Publishing his views in Lord Alfred Douglas's The Academy, for which he wrote regularly, Machen concluded that the legends of the Grail actually were based on dim recollections of the rites of the Celtic Church. These ideas also featured strongly in the novel The Secret Glory which he wrote at this time, marking the first use in fiction of the idea of the Grail's surviving into modern times in some form, an idea much utilised ever since, as by Charles Williams (War in Heaven), Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code) and George Lucas (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). In 1907, The Hill of Dreams, generally considered Machen's masterpiece, was finally published, though it was not recognized much at the time.The next few years saw Machen continue with acting in various companies and with journalistic work, but he was finding it increasingly hard to earn a living and his legacies were long exhauste.... Discover the Arthur Machen popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Arthur Machen books.

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  • Essential Novelists - Arthur Machen synopsis, comments

    Essential Novelists - Arthur Machen

    Arthur Machen & August Nemo

    Welcome to the Essential Novelists book series, were we present to you the best works of remarkable authors. For this book, the literary critic August Nemo has chosen the two most ...

  • When Things Get Dark synopsis, comments

    When Things Get Dark

    Ellen Datlow, Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Carmen Maria Machado & Paul Tremblay

    The Stoker Awardwinning chilling anthology of 18 short stories in tribute to the genius of Shirley Jackson, collecting today’s best horror writers. Featuring Joyce Carol Oates, Jos...

  • 7 best short stories by Arthur Machen synopsis, comments

    7 best short stories by Arthur Machen

    Arthur Machen & August Nemo

    He was born in 1863 in Wales, in CaerlsonUsk. He settled in London, still young, where he was a bookstore clerk for a few months, becoming a preceptor. Subsequently, he began to wr...

  • 7 best short stories by John Buchan synopsis, comments

    7 best short stories by John Buchan

    John Buchan & August Nemo

    Although little known today, John Buchan's fiction was important in defining the present mystery fiction. The critic August Nemo selected seven short stories by this author for...

  • Arthur Machen synopsis, comments

    Arthur Machen

    Vincent Starrett

    Arthur Machen was born in Wales in 1863. He is married and has two children. That is an astonishing thought, after reading "The Inmost Light". It is surprising indeed to learn that...

  • Arthur Machen -- Weaver of Fantasy synopsis, comments

    Arthur Machen -- Weaver of Fantasy

    William F. Gekle

    Excerpt: ''It was, I suppose, during the closing months of the First World War that an urbane and witty gentleman, writing in the Confederate city of Richmond, set down these words...

  • The Arthur Machen Collection synopsis, comments

    The Arthur Machen Collection

    Arthur Machen

    Karpathos publishes the greatest works of history's greatest authors and collects them to make it easy and affordable for readers to have them all at the push of a button.  Al...

  • The Twisted Ones synopsis, comments

    The Twisted Ones

    T. Kingfisher

    Winner of the RUSA Award for Best HorrorWhen a young woman clears out her deceased grandmother’s home in rural North Carolina, she finds longhidden secrets about a strange colony o...

  • Arthur Machen - Eleusinia synopsis, comments

    Arthur Machen - Eleusinia

    Arthur Machen

    Arthur Llewelyn Jones was born in Caerleon, Monmouthshire on the 3rd March 1863.Machen came from a long line of clergymen, and when he was two, his father became vicar of a small p...

  • The Arthur Machen Anthology synopsis, comments

    The Arthur Machen Anthology

    Arthur Machen

    Of Hawthorne, Arthur Symons wrote: "He is haunted by what is obscure, dangerous, and on the confines of good and evil." Machen crosses those perilous frontiers. He all but lifts th...

  • The Hollow Places synopsis, comments

    The Hollow Places

    T. Kingfisher

    A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle’s house, leading to madness and terror in this gripping new novel from the author of the “innovative, unexpected, and absolute...

  • 7 best short stories by Amelia B. Edwards synopsis, comments

    7 best short stories by Amelia B. Edwards

    Amelia B. Edwards & August Nemo

    Amelia B. Edwards was a versatile woman, who had been a journalist, writer and Egyptologist. Her tales of horror and ghost became very famous at the time of release. In this book, ...

  • The Arthur Machen Collection synopsis, comments

    The Arthur Machen Collection

    Arthur Machen

    Arthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horro...

  • London synopsis, comments

    London

    Iain Sinclair

    ‘A book full of richness, unexpected enticements, short sharp shocks and breathtaking writing’ Guardian Welcome to the real, unauthorised London: the disappeared, the unapproved, ...

  • Arthur Machen A Novelist of Ecstasy and Sin With Two Uncollected Poems by Arthur Machen synopsis, comments

    Arthur Machen A Novelist of Ecstasy and Sin With Two Uncollected Poems by Arthur Machen

    Vincent Starrett

    Excerpt: ''With singular unanimity critics for thirty years have slighted the work of Arthur Machen. A line suffices for him in Holbrook Jackson''s ''The Eighteen Nineties,'' and M...

  • Confessions of an English Opium Eater synopsis, comments

    Confessions of an English Opium Eater

    Thomas De Quincey & Barry Milligan

    "Thou has the keys of Paradise, oh just, subtle, and mighty opium!" Determined to counter the lies about opium that had been told by travellers to the Orient and the medical profes...

  • Arthur Machen - A Short Story Collection synopsis, comments

    Arthur Machen - A Short Story Collection

    Arthur Machen

    Arthur Llewelyn Jones was born in Caerleon, Monmouthshire on the 3rd March 1863.Machen came from a long line of clergymen, and when he was two, his father became vicar of a small p...

  • Arthur Machen synopsis, comments

    Arthur Machen

    Antonio Sanna

    Arthur Machen: Critical Essays studies the works of Arthur Machen in twelve essays, exploring different aspects of the literary production of the Welsh writer who has won the reade...

  • Arthur Machen synopsis, comments

    Arthur Machen

    William F. Gekle

    With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world. Who are w...

  • Arthur Machen synopsis, comments

    Arthur Machen

    Vincent Starrett

    With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world. Who are w...

  • The Collected Works of ARTHUR MACHEN synopsis, comments

    The Collected Works of ARTHUR MACHEN

    Arthur Machen

    This comprehensive eBook presents the complete works or all the significant works the Œuvre of this famous and brilliant writer in one ebook easytoread and easytonavigate: The ...

  • John Fowles synopsis, comments

    John Fowles

    Jonathan Noakes & Margaret Reynolds

    The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Magus, A MaggotIn Vintage Living Texts, teachers and students will find the essential guide to the works of John Fowles. Vintage Living Texts...

  • The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror synopsis, comments

    The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror

    Stephen Jones & Michael Marshall Smith

    Welcome to a landscape of ancient evil . . . with stories by masters of horror Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, H. P. Lovecraft, M. R. James​, Ramsey Campbell, Storm Co...

  • The Arthur Machen Megapack synopsis, comments

    The Arthur Machen Megapack

    Arthur Machen

    To anyone interested in supernatural fiction, the work of Welsh master Arthur Machen (18631947) is a fundamental starting point. In 2008, Stephen King called Machen's "The Great Go...

  • 7 best short stories by John Kendrick Bangs synopsis, comments

    7 best short stories by John Kendrick Bangs

    John Kendrick Bangs & August Nemo

    John Kendrick Bangs was an American author, humorist, editor and satirist. His name is immortalised in the term "Bangsian Fantasy" fantasy set in the afterlife, of which ...

  • The Masters of Horror for Halloween synopsis, comments

    The Masters of Horror for Halloween

    Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce & Arthur Machen

    eartnow presents to you this unique collection made especially for Halloween with carefully picked out stories from the very masters of the genre: H. P. Lovecraft: The Call of Cthu...

  • Arthur Machen and Montgomery Evans synopsis, comments

    Arthur Machen and Montgomery Evans

    Sue Strong Hassler & Donald Hassler

    Arthur Machen (18631947), who achieved significant fame in the 1920s, was a general man of letters with echoes of Samuel Johnson, an important influence on later fantasy writers fr...

  • Charles Bukowski synopsis, comments

    Charles Bukowski

    Barry Miles

    'Fear makes me a writer, fear and a lack of confidence'Charles Bukowski chronicled the seedy underside of the city in which he spent most of his life, Los Angeles. His heroes were ...

  • Arthur Machen A Novelist of Ecstasy and Sin With Two Uncollected Poems by Arthur Machen synopsis, comments

    Arthur Machen A Novelist of Ecstasy and Sin With Two Uncollected Poems by Arthur Machen

    Vincent Starrett

    Excerpt: "With singular unanimity critics for thirty years have slighted the work of Arthur Machen. A line suffices for him in Holbrook Jackson's "The Eighteen Nineties," and Mr. B...