Algernon Henry Blackwood (1869–1951) was an English author of tales of mystery and the supernatural, broadcasting narrator, journalist, and novelist. He is considered one of the most prolific ghost story writers in the genre’s history.
Born in Shooters Hill, Kent, Blackwood was educated at Edinburgh before working his way through farming in Canada, managing a hotel, mining in the Alaskan goldfields, and working as a New York reporter, as related in his Episodes before Thirty (1923.)
Blackwood returned to England in 1899. After publishing his first book of short stories, The Empty House (1906,) he became a full-time fiction writer. His novels reflect his taste for the supernatural and the occult, including The Human Chord (1910) and The Wave (1916.) He also published the collections of short stories, Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural (1949,) John Silence (1908,) and Tongues of Fire (1924.)
Blackwood later achieved a broad audience as a teller of ghost tales on British radio and television. British bibliographer and science fiction editor Mike Ashley wrote Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life (2001.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Algernon Blackwood
The best match in the world will not light a candle unless the wick be first suitably prepared.
—Algernon Blackwood
Topics: Preparation
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