Perhaps I've become jaded, but the truth is that I read horror fiction, dark fantasy or whatever it's called nowadays more out of admiration for the skill with which it's put together than out of any expectation that I'm actually going to be frightened.
My first exposure to Algernon Blackwood, a short story called "The Empty House," was one of those increasingly rare instances where a story - in this case a seemingly ordinary haunted house yarn - actually managed to get under my skin.
Mike Ashley's biography of Blackwood, which was about twenty years in the making, is a fairly straightforward chronological work that seems like it has somehow packed an extraordinary amount of detail into the 341 pages of the biography proper. Ashley sometimes bogs down in the minutiae of Blackwood's social contacts and his extensive travels, but for the most part he keeps things moving along nicely.
The author kicks off the proceedings with the statement that Blackwood was "one of the twentieth-century's most creative writers of supernatural fiction." Blackwood was probably best known for his short stories - most notably among them "The Willows," "The Wendigo" and "Ancient Sorceries." All in all, his short stories filled thirteen volumes and more than a few reprint collections.
Blackwood wrote an equal number of novels and nearly as many children's books, though they are not generally as well known. He was also a rather skilled storyteller - in the oral sense of the word. In the latter part of his 82 years on this plane of existence he became quite popular, thanks to numerous radio and TV appearances that found him reading his stories to rapt audiences.
But, as Ashley points out, there was much more to Blackwood. There was Blackwood, "the indefatigable traveler;" Blackwood, the secret agent; Blackwood, the nature lover; Blackwood, member of the magical order of the Golden Dawn; Blackwood, friend or acquaintance to "most of the literary establishment of his day;" and even Blackwood, the New York Times reporter.
Recommended, in spite of the occasionally plodding pace.
William I. Lengeman III is an Arizona-based freelance journalist, humorist and fiction writer. More info at http://wileng.home.mindspring.com/.
© William I. Lengeman III
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