Algernon Blackwood
1869–1951
Biography
Algernon Henry Blackwood (1869–1951) was an English writer of ghost stories, novels and journalism, and later a broadcaster who told his tales on radio and television. He was born at Shooter's Hill, then in northwest Kent and now part of south-east London, and he was educated at Wellington College. His interest in Buddhism and other eastern philosophies began with a book by a Hindu sage that he found at his parents' house, and it stayed with him.
Before he settled on fiction he had a restless career. He farmed in Canada, reported for The New York Times, worked as a private secretary and a violin teacher, and was one of the founding members of the Toronto Theosophical Society in February 1891. He returned to England in his late thirties and began the ghost stories that made his name; more than ten collections followed, together with some fourteen novels, several children's books and a number of plays. He joined The Ghost Club, but he was less interested in fright than in awe, and his stories often test the limits of ordinary consciousness.
Two of his books are on this site. The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories is a collection aiming more at awe than at fright. The Willows, often counted among his best-known stories, follows two travellers on a canoe journey down a river; they camp on an island among the willows and come to feel that the place itself has turned against them. Stories like these are the basis of his reputation as a master of the weird.
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Books
The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories
by Algernon Blackwood
Algernon Blackwood's collection of ghostly tales, from empty houses to old woods. Quiet dread at the edge of ordinary rooms.
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.The Willows
by Algernon Blackwood
"The Willows" is a novella by English author Algernon Blackwood, originally published as part of his 1907 collection The Listener and Other Stories. It is one of Blackwood's best known works and has been influential on a number of later writers. Horror author H.P. Lovecraft…
Summary from Wikipedia: The Willows (story) (CC BY-SA 4.0)