Over the course of his long life he acquired a mere suitcase-full of possessions, and most of his accumulated paperwork was destroyed in a direct hit on his nephew’s house during the blitz, a disaster from which Blackwood himself was extremely fortunate to escape with life and limb intact. It might be a fair presumption to make that he is the only one of the 101 Weird Writers whose work has directly inspired a successful West End musical. However, this is a misleading and reductive approach to take to his bewilderingly prodigious output. He is now usually remembered, if at all, as a writer of atmospheric Edwardian ghost stories, who, through his creation John Silence, provides a link between Le Fanu’s Van Hesselius and Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki in the literary history of the psychic detective. ‘Tennyson, you remember, says, “the cedars sigh for Lebanon,” and that is exquisite poetry, but Blackwood believes the cedars really do sigh for Lebanon and that is damned nonsense!’ - Arthur Machen Īlgernon Blackwood was born a high Victorian and died a television star. Blackwood’s genius there can be no dispute for no one has even approached the skill, seriousness, and minute fidelity with which he records the overtones of strangeness in ordinary things and experiences’ - H. Adam Mills, editor of “101 Weird Writers” 101 Weird Writers is delighted to present this appreciation of Blackwood and “The Willows,” written by our newest contributor, James Machin.

Marion Crawford, among others, Blackwood helped usher in the modern era of weird fiction.

Joshi has stated that Blackwood’s short story collection Incredible Adventures “may be the premier weird collection” of the twentieth century. Although Lovecraft thought Blackwood a master of the ghost story, Blackwood famously was not as impressed with Lovecraft. In tales such as “The Willows” (1908) unease is generated by ambiguity that mixes the weird with a talent for writing about wild or rural places - a break with the past and the classic haunted house. There is no ranking system the order is determined by the schedule of posts.Īlgernon Blackwood (1869 - 1951) was a prolific English writer best known for his supernatural horror.

This post is part of an ongoing series on 101 weird writers featured in The Weird compendium, the anthology that serves as the inspiration for this site.

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