The Algernon Blackwood Collection

by Algernon Blackwood

Algernon Blackwood 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."

The Algernon Blackwood Collection features: 

The Centaur
Jimbo: A Fantasy
The Human Chord
A Prisoner In Fairyland
The Extra Day
Julius Levallon: An Episode
The Bright Messenger
The Wave: An Egyptian Aftermath
The Promise Of Air
The Garden Of Survival
The Willows
The Wendigo
The Damned
The Man Whom The Trees Loved
The Insanity Of Jones
The Man Who Found Out
The Glamour Of The Snow
Sand
Three John Silence Stories
Three More John Silence Stories
The Empty House
A Haunted Island
A Case Of Eavesdropping
Keeping His Promise
With Intent To Steal
The Wood Of The Dead
Smith: An Episode In A Lodging-House
A Suspicious Gift
The Strange Adventures Of A Private Secretary In New York
Skeleton Lake: An Episode In Camp
The Tryst
The Touch Of Pan
The Wings Of Horus
Initiation
A Desert Episode
The Other Wing
The Occupant Of The Room
Cain’s Atonement
An Egyptian Hornet
By Water
H. S. H.
A Bit Of Wood
Transition
The Tradition
The Wolves Of God
Chinese Magic
Running Wolf
First Hate
The Tarn Of Sacrifice
The Valley Of The Beasts
The Call
Egyptian Sorcery
The Decoy
The Man Who Found Out
The Empty Sleeve
Wireless Confusion
Confession
The Lane That Ran East And West
and
“Vengeance Is Mine”

Genres: Classics, Horror

4412 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 13, 2015

About the author

Algernon Henry Blackwood (1869–1951) 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".

Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (today part of south-east London, but then part of northwest Kent) and educated at Wellington College. His father was a Post Office administrator who, according to Peter Penzoldt, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas." Blackwood had a varied career, farming in Canada, operating a hotel, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, and, throughout his adult life, an occasional essayist for various periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural. He was very successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and eventually appearing on both radio and television to tell them. He also wrote fourteen 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, and many of his stories reflect this.

H.P. Lovecraft wrote of Blackwood: "He is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere." His powerful story "The Willows," which effectively describes another dimension impinging upon our own, was reckoned by Lovecraft to be not only "foremost of all" Blackwood's tales but the best "weird tale" of all time.

Among his thirty-odd books, Blackwood wrote a series of stories and short novels published as John Silence, Physician Extraordinary (1908), which featured a "psychic detective" who combined the skills of a Sherlock Holmes and a psychic medium. Blackwood also wrote light fantasy and juvenile books.

Reviews

[Paul Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

On reflection, Blackwood is a bit of a windbag who in his efforts to create atmosphere (which he signally fails to do in The Damned) forgets that he is a storyteller.