Author Biography – Algernon Blackwood
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Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English writer of fiction dealing with the supernatural, who was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator.
S. T. Joshi has stated that “his work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer’s except Dunsany’s” and that his short story collection Incredible Adventures “may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century”. H. P. Lovecraft included Blackwood as one of the “Modern Masters” in the chapter of that name in Supernatural Horror in Literature. Peter Penzoldt devotes the final chapter of The Supernatural in Fiction (1952) to an analysis of Blackwood’s work, and the book is dedicated “with deep admiration and gratitude, to Algernon Blackwood, the greatest of them all”. |
The Life of Algernon Blackwood
Algernon Henry 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”. Algernon Henry 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. Algernon Henry Blackwood was an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, and many of his stories reflect this.
According to many critics, his two best known stories are probably “The Willows” and “The Wendigo”. Algernon Henry Blackwood 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 Algernon Henry 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 climaxes 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 in human consciousness. In correspondence with Peter Penzoldt, Algernon Henry 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. ”
It is believed that Algernon Blackwood was a member of one of the factions of the Cabalistic Order originally called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as was his contemporary Arthur Machen, and cabalistic themes are at the heart of his novel The Human Chord.
Algernon Henry Blackwood also wrote an autobiography of his early years, Episodes Before Thirty (1923), and there is a biography by Mike Ashley.
Works by Algernon Blackwood
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* The Insanity of Jones (1907) – Jimbo (1909) – The Education of Uncle Paul (1909) – * The Glamour of the Snow (1912) – A Prisoner in Fairyland (1913) sequel to The Education of Uncle Paul) – The Human Chord (1910) – The Centaur (1911) – The Extra Day (1915) – Julius LeVallon (1916) – The Bright Messenger (1921) sequel to Julius LeVallon) – The Wave (1916) – The Promise of Air (1918) – The Garden of Survival (1918) – * The Man Who Found Out (1921) – Sambo and Snitch (1927) – Dudley and Gilderoy (1929) – The Fruit Stoners (1934)
In addition, Algernon Blackwood is credited with authioring over 30 short fiction collections and numerous short stories.
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Tags: Algernon Blackwood, Bizzare Tales, Fiction Writer, Ghostly Encounters, The Unexplained
