Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life [Hardcover]

Mike Ashley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2002

Not only one of the twentieth century’s most inventive writers of supernatural fiction and author of such masterpieces as The Willows and The Wendigo, Algernon Blackwood was also an indefatigable traveler, an extremely popular storyteller on radio and television (he appeared on the first British television program ever), and a secret agent during the First World War. Added to that, it was Algernon Blackwood, not Andrew Lloyd Webber, who originated the Starlight Express. A Buddhist and theosophist as well as a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn, Blackwood consorted with mystics and magicians, who knew him as Pan, while those who delighted in his rich storyteller’s voice and lively humor affectionately called him Uncle Paul. Some saw him as an ancient child, others as an accomplished athlete. He found time meanwhile to hobnob with the literary establishment—with the likes of Hilaire Belloc, P. G. Wodehouse, Compton Mackenzie, and H. G. Wells—and his work inspired writers as diverse as Henry Miller and Carlos Casteneda. Yet the story of this fascinating, charming, elusive, and enigmatic man’s life has never before been told. More than twenty years of research and countless interviews with friends and colleagues of the extraordinary Algernon Blackwood, as well as a close examination of his unpublished papers, stand behind this first full-length biography of a writer who, according to The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, “delivered a greater number of magisterial shudders than more refined writers in the genre ever attempted.”

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Blackwood (1869-1951) remains among the top tier of writers of supernatural fiction, best known now for such hallmark chillers as The Willows and The Wendigo. He also penned some lamentably forgotten fantasy novels, so a Blackwood revival is overdue. British editor and scholar Ashley, known for his many anthologies in the Mammoth series, has been researching him heroically for decades to assemble this first book-length account of an elusive but fascinating life. But this may not be the book to return Blackwood to the front burner. Ashley's jam-packed biography seems almost as fascinated by its subject's skiing vacation schedules as by the man himself. The introduction is most inviting, tantalizing readers with references to Blackwood's experiences as a British spy, nature mystic, footloose adventurer, popular broadcast personality and friend to the rich, the famous and the eccentric. But the subsequent exposition rarely brings these wonderments to life or reveals what makes his fiction so powerful. Of his dreamy, dissolute youth, when he underwent agonies and ecstasies worthy of a Hermann Hesse novel, complete with aristocratic, hyperreligious parents, Blackwood would much later write a poignant memoir, Episodes Before Thirty, with the sort of compelling narrative in too-short-supply in Ashley's account. By his 30s, Blackwood had emerged as an author of tension-filled short stories and spiritually imaginative novels, a man whose immense personal charm and bracing raconteurship won friends, hospitality and acclaim wherever he went, despite deep insecurities. Ashley has much to tell but doesn't connect enough dots to captivate the reader. The book fails to integrate the details into a sustained thematic focus. This groundbreaking study is a treasure trove for classic horror fans, but it will weary most others.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Though he was noted for his prolific publication of short supernatural fiction, Blackwood led a life of astonishing variety from serving as a spy for the British during World War I to acting in the very first program on British television. In this first full-length biography, British author Ashley (The Merlin Chronicles) details Blackwood's productive life. Blackwood was born in 1869 of a distinguished family in Kent and at an early age gravitated to Eastern wisdom and theosophy, then to New York City, where he was hired as a reporter for the New York Times. After his stint as a secret agent, and with Switzerland as his home base, Blackwood threw himself into writing plays and children's stories as well as novels. In the Thirties, he made seven radio broadcasts for the BBC. His last years were spent entertaining listeners of both radio and TV with his weird fiction. This biography will be of interest to readers who still remember shivering, as children, over Blackwood's supernatural stories or readers who relish the style of late 19th-century English eccentricity. Recommended for libraries with holdings in early 20th-century English literature. Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, MO
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; 1st ed edition (January 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786709286
• ISBN-13: 978-0786709281
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,620,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still alive, January 21, 2002

By 

Philip Challinor - See all my reviews

This review is from: Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life (Hardcover)

It was about time. Blackwood, who died just over fifty years ago, was one of the great twentieth-century masters of the weird tale; H P Lovecraft, no less, called his long story "The Willows" possibly the greatest weird tale ever written, and S T Joshi has said that his book Incredible Adventures may be the greatest weird collection. The more one reads of Blackwood, the more one is amazed at his present obscurity - an obscurity which may at last be starting to lift. The product of twenty years' research, including interviews with several people who knew Blackwood personally, this first ever full-length biography is an amazing achievement, particularly in view of Blackwood's cavalier attitude towards personal possessions, including documents. Ashley's extraordinary life of this extraordinary man details eighty-two years encompassing two world wars (during the first of which Blackwood served as a secret agent in Switzerland), innumerable travels round the world, near-starvation and vagrancy in New York, the high society of the 1920s and salvation by burning sausage during the London Blitz. Though clumsily written, the book's narrative is commendably clear; Blackwood was an immensely pleasant and sociable individual who met and befriended a great many people in the course of a long and eventful life, but although I raced through his biography I never once had to check back to find out who was who. Ashley perhaps harps a little too much on the fact that Blackwood originated the term "Starlight Express", but he does so for a better reason than mere topicality - he's trying to emphasise Blackwood's continuing (perhaps growing) relevance to the present. As S T Joshi remarked at the end of his chapter on Blackwood in The Weird Tale, Blackwood is a writer waiting to be discovered. Ashley's book should shorten the wait considerably.

4.0 out of 5 stars An Extraordinary Man, January 20, 2008

By 

John R. Lindermuth "J. R. Lindermuth, author ... (Coal Township PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life (Hardcover)

In his day, Algernon Blackwood was among the best known writers in the horror field. Today he's less known except to devotees of that genre.

But Blackwood didn't consider himself a horror writer. He said all his stories were based on personal experiences or those of close friends and, though he found the strange in the most ordinary of those experiences, he was most concerned with expanding consciousness for a greater understanding of life and nature.

Blackwood remains a mysterious figure and Mike Ashley has done a marvelous job of finding sources to interpret his life and career, all the more marvelous because the writer left only fragmentary details of his activities and Ashley had to play detective to find his material.

What Ashley unveils is a creative person who was not only an untiring writer (he was still penning stories in his late eighties) but also a world traveler, an undercover agent in World War 1 and a storyteller on radio and TV.

His attitude toward life was that one is never to old to try new things. An admirable attitude.

Ashley's writing is at times pedestrian but his subject makes it worth plugging on.

4.0 out of 5 stars THE biography of Blackwood, December 26, 2007

By 

Polymathicus "Polymathicus" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life (Hardcover)

Blackwood's life was indeed extraordinary, and so was the man. When you write about such an incredible character, you can hardly go wrong. This book is, to date, THE standard biography of Algernon Blackwood, one of the greatest supernatural tale writers of all times (trust not me, but the sound judgement of HP Lovecraft!). As one can sense from his writings, Blackwood had a copious first-hand experience of the weird.
" An extraordinary Life" follows AB through his pilgrimages around the world, tries its best to peep into the life of a quite mysterious fellow, and traces some of the sources of his wondrous tales. The last part is perhaps a bit boring, but hei, if you are a Blackwood's aficionado, this is a must.

PS Nobody knows yet the true identity of Dr. Silence: the case is open for further investigations.