The Unknown: Weird Writings, 1900-1937

Handheld Weirds #8

by Algernon Blackwood

This new selection of Algernon Blackwood’s essays and short stories is a unique combination of supernatural writing and the author’s own reflections on the art of fiction, and the themes and impulses that created these remarkable stories.  Blackwood (1869-1951) is one of the great names in Weird writing, and one of the foremost British writers of horror, supernatural and ghost stories. His talent for expressing unknown fears come through strongly in these tales of the Canadian backwoods, Alpine mountaineering and desert loneliness. His deep interest in extending consciousness beyond human faculties produced short stories to lead the reader into wild and remote settings, to face nature at its most awe-inspiring and terrifying, and to sense, if only briefly, the immensity of the unknown forces beyond. Stories 'Skeleton Lake’, 'The Wolves of God’, 'The Glamour of the Snow’, 'The Sacrifice’, 'The Insanity of Jones’, 'The Tarn of Sacrifice’, 'By Water’ and 'Imagination’. Essays 'Mid the Haunts of the Moose’, 'The Winter Alps’, 'On Reincarnation’ and 'The Genesis of Ideas’. This selection of Blackwood’s writing has been curated with an Introduction by Henry Bartholomew. 

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Essays

219 pages, Paperback

Published March 14, 2023

About the author

Algernon 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.

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was fantastic but the majority of the stories decidedly less so. Only for completionists.

[Jakub Rajtár · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories, very creative, not a fan of his writing style although the time of writing needs to be taken into consideration

[alex]

Canada

"'Mid the Haunts of the Moose" (1900)
rating: tbd/5

"Skeleton Lake: An Episode in Camp" (1906)
rating: tbd/5

"The Wolves of God" (1921)
rating: tbd/5

Mountain

"The Winter Alps" (1910)
rating: tbd/5

"The Glamour of the Snow" (1911)
rating: tbd/5

"The Sacrifice" (1913)
rating: tbd/5

Reincarnation

"On Reincarnation" (1930)
rating: tbd/5

"The Insanity of Jones (A Study in Reincarnation)" (1907)
rating: tbd/5

"The Tarn of Sacrifice" (1921)
rating: tbd/5

Imagination

"The Genesis of Ideas" (1937)
rating: tbd/5

"By Water" (1914)
rating: tbd/5

"Imagination" (1910)
rating: tbd/5

[Jenni Link · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wellll they're not really that weird. But this is a nice collection of paired pieces - one nonfiction / journalistic essay and one fictional tale on a related theme - by a man very much of his time, who was apparently an inspiration to H.P. Lovecraft, but reminded me more of Lafcadio Hearn. It was especially interesting to notice how the tone of his writing changed after WWI, and incorporated more lurid elements.

[Scout Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE LOVE LOVE; Hits pretty much every horror spot- crippling existential crises, self-insert characters with fun names such as Jones or Herbert, and those said characters somehow seeing and knowing big spooky supernatural Order of the Golden Dawn secrets, yet leaving you in suspense til their story is done

[Chris Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my introduction to Algernon Blackwood and I'm sufficiently impressed! Amazed how fresh these stories still feel over a century since they were published. This collection doesn't include his most famous stories (The Willows and The Wendigo) which I'm eager to track down ASAP.

[Juliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars? Maybe 4. The writing is good, and I like how the editors organized the essays and stories thematically. But most of the stories didn't really capture my attention. I'll still be reading more from him in the future.

[Joe Canas · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointing. 4 essays, each succeeded by 2 oft-collected short stories.

This is not a generous selection of Blackwood's non-fiction.