The willows

Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) was one of the most prolific English writers of the twentieth century across short stories, novels and plays. His passion for the supernatural and for ghost stories often made readers and critics to compare him to M. R. James and Sheridan Le Fanu. Some even argue that he had a more sophisticated style and that a more artistic touch marked his extraordinary storytelling. Today, much of his excellent fiction remains out of print and undiscovered by the wide public. Algernon Blackwood was born in on March 14th 1869 in Shooter's Hill, now part of modern day South East London, to an upper middle-class family who led a religious life. His mother was a widowed Duchess and his father was her second husband. Biographers believe that Algernon started to be interested in subjects related to the paranormal and the supernatural at an early age, being influenced by the kind of life his parents were living as new converts to Calvinism. His father, who was a post office administrator, sent him to be educated at Wellington College.However, his fascination with "weird" stories only grew stronger and he started to read on Oriental philosophies, mysticism and occultism. Later, his interests made him join the renowned The Ghost Club which had earlier been joined by other important writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle and William Butler Yeats. It was hence that Algernon Blackwood started to consider writing on the subject of the supernatural and his writings took various forms ranging from the ghost story and children's stories to plays and long novels. However, in addition to displaying his wide knowledge related to subjects such as mysticism, hypnotism and ghosts, Blackwood's writings were also enriched by his long and diversified life experience. In fact, after leaving university and visiting parts of Europe, mainly Switzerland, the young writer was sent to the new continent. He settled in Canada and then in the United States where he occupied numerous different jobs and extended his comprehension of life and people. He worked as a farmer, a bartender, a secretary, a journalist and a reporter, and a teacher. This enriching experience was not very successful on the financial level, though, and he eventually had to return to his home land. It was only when he came back to England that Blackwood started to give his writing activities more importance. It all started when two of his supernatural stories were published in the Pall Mall Magazine. They were entitled "A Haunted Island" (1906) and "A Case of Eavesdropping" (1900) and dealt with weird apparition. Meanwhile, the young writer kept on travelling and enriching his experience and imagination, meeting new people and visiting new places.