Blackwood was born in Shooters 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 childrens 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. English writer of ghost stories and supernatural fiction; of whom Lovecraft wrote: "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" Blackwoods tales but the best "weird tale" of all time. (Unfortunately; Blackwood; who was familiar with Lovecrafts work; failed to return the compliment. As he told Peter Penzoldt; he found "spiritual terror" missing in his young admirers writing; something he considered all-important in his own.) 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. The son of a preacher; Blackwood had a life-long interest in the supernatural; the occult; and spiritualism; and firmly believed that humans possess latent psychic powers. The autobiography Episodes Before Thirty (1923) tells of his lean years as a journalist in New York. In the late 1940s; Blackwood had a television program on the BBC on which he read . . . ghost stories!
#1079458 in eBooks 2014-03-14 2014-03-14File Name: B00I2G6UEO
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