The First Algernon Blackwood Megapack
Version 1.0
COPYRIGHT INFO
The Algernon Blackwood Megapack is copyright © 2013 by Wildside Press LLC. All rights reserved. Cover art © 2013 by Anibal / Fotolia. For more information, contact the publisher.
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“The Willows” originally appeared in the Listener and Other Stories (1907).
“The Wendigo” originally appeared in the Lost Valley and Other Stories (1910).
“The Singular Death of Morton” originally appeared in the Tramp, December 1910.
“The Olive” originally appeared in Pearson’s Magazine, July 1921.
“Ancient Lights” originally appeared in the Eye-Witness, November 7, 1912.
“The Kit-Bag” originally appeared in the Pall Mall Magazine, 1899.
“The Occupant of the Room” originally appeared in Nash’s Magazine, December 1909.
“A Haunted Island” originally appeared in the Pall Mall Magazine, April 1899.
The Centaur originally appeared in 1911.
“The Damned” originally appeared in Incredible Adventures (1914).
“The Wolves of God” originally appeared in the Wolves of God and Other Fey Stories (1921).
“Chinese Magic” originally appeared in Romance, June 1920.
“Running Wolf” originally appeared in the Century Magazine, August 1920.
“First Hate” originally appeared in McClure’s Magazine, February 1920.
“The Tarn of Sacrifice” originally appeared in the Wolves of God and Other Fey Stories (1921).
“The Valley of the Beasts” originally appeared in Romance, May 1921.
“The Call” originally appeared in Nash’s Illustrated Weekly, June 12, 1919.
“Egyptian Sorcery” originally appeared in the Wolves of God and Other Fey Stories (1921).
“The Decoy” originally appeared in Lloyd’s Magazine, December 1919.
“The Man Who Found Out (A Nightmare)” originally appeared in the Canadian Magazine, December 1912.
“The Empty Sleeve” originally appeared in the London Magazine, January 1911.
“Wireless Confusion” originally appeared in the Wolves of God and Other Fey Stories (1921).
“Confession” originally appeared in the Century Magazine, March 1921.
“The Lane That Ran East and West” originally appeared in McCall’s, September 1921.
“Vengeance Is Mine”” originally appeared in the Wolves of God and Other Fey Stories (1921).
The six cases of John Silence originally appeared in John Silence (1908).
“The Regeneration of Lord Ernie” originally appeared in Incredible Adventures (1914).
“The Sacrifice” originally appeared in the Quest, April 1913.
“A Descent Into Egypt” originally appeared in Incredible Adventures (1914).
“Wayfarers” originally appeared in the English Review, December 1912.
“Accessory Before the Fact” originally appeared in the Westminster Gazette, February 9, 1911.
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
MEET ALGERNON BLACKWOOD
Algernon Blackwood (1869– 1951) was an English short story writer and novelist, one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator. S. T. Joshi has stated that “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, working as a dairy farmer in Canada, operating a hotel, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, bartender, model, journalist for the New York Times, private secretary, businessman, and violin teacher.
Throughout his adult life, he was 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. To satisfy his interest in the supernatural, he joined the Ghost Club. He never married; according to his friends he was a loner but also cheerful company.
Jack Sullivan points out that “Blackwood’s life parallels his work more neatly than perhaps that of any other ghost story writer. Like his lonely but fundamentally optimistic protagonists, he was a combination of mystic and outdoorsman; when he wasn’t steeping himself in occultism, including Rosicrucianism and Buddhism, he was likely to be skiing or mountain climbing.” Blackwood was a member of one of the factions of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as was his contemporary Arthur Machen.
His two best known stories are probably “The Willows” and “The Wendigo,” which lead off this collection. He would also often write stories for newspapers at short notice, with the result that he was uncertain exactly how many short stories he had written and there is no sure total. Though Blackwood wrote a number of horror stories, his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe. One good examples is the novel the Centaur. In correspondence with Peter Penzoldt, Blackwood wrote:
My fundamental interest, I suppose, is signs and proofs of other powers that lie hidden in us all; the extension, in other words, of human faculty. So many of my stories, therefore, deal with extension of consciousness; speculative and imaginative treatment of possibilities outside our normal range of consciousness.… Also, all that happens in our universe is natural; under Law; but an extension of our so limited normal consciousness can reveal new, extraordinary powers etc., and the word “supernatural” seems the best word for treating these in fiction. I believe it possible for our consciousness to change and grow, and that with this change we may become aware of a new universe. A “change” in consciousness, in its type, I mean, is something more than a mere extension of what we already possess and know.
—John Betancourt
Publisher, Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidepress.com
ABOUT THE MEGAPACK SERIES
Over the last few years, our “Megapack” series of ebook anthologies has proved to be one of our most popular endeavors. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”
The Megapacks (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt, Mary Wickizer Burgess, Sam Cooper, Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Bonner Menking, Colin Azariah-Kribbs, Robert Reginald. A. E. Warren, and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!).
A NOTE FOR KINDLE READERS
The Kindle versions of our Megapacks employ active tables of contents for easy navigation…please look for one before writing reviews on Amazon that complain about the lack! (They are sometimes at the ends of ebooks, depending on your reader.)
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