Algernon Blackwood is remembered best for his two superlative horror stories, “The Wendigo” and “The Willows.” But in his lifetime he wrote over 150 stories, at least a dozen novels, two plays and quite a few children’s books as well.
Born in London on March 14, 1869, Blackwood rebelled against his strong Catholic upbringing and began studying Oriental religions and the occult, later joining several occult societies. When he reached twenty, his father sent him to Canada, and there he spent several years before entering the U.S. and becoming a reporter for the New York Sun.

Returning to Britain in the late 1890’s, he soon began turning some of his strange experiences into stories, beginning with “A Haunted Island,” a ghost story set in the remote Canadian backwoods. An acquaintance sent these stories to a publisher and the result was The Empty House, soon followed by many more weird story collections and some truly strange and powerful novels.
Storyteller, mystic, adventurer, radio and television personality—Algernon Blackwood has been all of these in his rich and varied lifetime. In fact, as he revealed to his friends, most of his stories were based on actual events. By the time of his death in 1951, he had become one of the greatest writers of supernatural fiction in the 20th century.