Selected and introduced by Stephen Carver‘Something was about to happen, something important, something possibly dreadful...’ ‘Of the quality of Mr. Blackwood’s genius there can be no dispute … he is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere.’ – H.P. Lovecraft Algernon Blackwood was a prolific and influential author of weird, occult and supernatural fiction. Beginning with ghost stories, Blackwood’s fiction evolved into an elegant exploration of unknown worlds that push against the boundaries of our own, of other dimensions, and higher states of consciousness. He wrote of the howling wildernesses of the world, vividly depicting a natural environment that is at once awe-inspiring, alien and hostile. Many of Blackwood’s most famous tales – such as The Wendigo and ‘The Willows’ (both included in this collection) – are set in the empty places, on frozen mountains and wild rivers, in lost valleys, great deserts, and vast, primeval forests. Blackwood also saw the strange and the terrible in the most quotidian of spaces, in parks and offices, boarding houses, restaurants and suburbs. Like his psychic detective ‘John Silence’, Blackwood was fascinated by psychometry, reincarnation, elemental spirits, and ghosts. Wherever such things lurked, he sought them out, and now so can you in this comprehensive collection of his short uncanny and supernatural fiction. As Blackwood explained himself, ‘I believe it possible for our consciousness to change and grow, and that with this change we may become aware of a new universe.’
