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The Wendigo and Others: Collected Short Fiction of Algernon Blackwood, Volume 3
558 pages, Paperback
Published June 30, 2025
2 people want to read
About the author
Algernon Blackwood
1,336 books1,176 followersAlgernon 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 11, 2025
Another great collection of Algernon Blackwood stories. Stories in this collection are:
The Wendigo
Old Clothes
The Price of Wiggins's Orgy
The Eccentricity of Simon Parnacute
The Message of the Clock
The Sea Fit
The Singular Death of Morton
Imagination
The Empty Sleeve
The Deferred Appointment
The Impulse
The Prayer
The Return
Two in One
Accessory Before the Fact
Clairvoyance
Dream Trespass
News v. Nourishment
The Glamour of the Snow
The Transfer
The Messenger
The Golden Fly
The Heath Fire
The Biter Bit
The Destruction of Smith
The Man Whom the Trees Loved
Egyptian Antiquities
The Attic
The Whisperers
The Second Generation
Ancient Lights
Sand
The Temptation of the Clay
The Goblin's Collection
Let Not the Sun
La Mauvaise Riche
The Wendigo
Old Clothes
The Price of Wiggins's Orgy
The Eccentricity of Simon Parnacute
The Message of the Clock
The Sea Fit
The Singular Death of Morton
Imagination
The Empty Sleeve
The Deferred Appointment
The Impulse
The Prayer
The Return
Two in One
Accessory Before the Fact
Clairvoyance
Dream Trespass
News v. Nourishment
The Glamour of the Snow
The Transfer
The Messenger
The Golden Fly
The Heath Fire
The Biter Bit
The Destruction of Smith
The Man Whom the Trees Loved
Egyptian Antiquities
The Attic
The Whisperers
The Second Generation
Ancient Lights
Sand
The Temptation of the Clay
The Goblin's Collection
Let Not the Sun
La Mauvaise Riche
Displaying 1 of 1 review