Algernon Blackwood
Algernon Blackwood
Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBEwas 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"may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century"...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth14 March 1869
light preparation world
The best match in the world will not light a candle unless the wick be first suitably prepared.
It is the little things that pierce and burn and prick for years to come.
discovered improbable spinning tales taste
I used to tell strange, wild, improbable tales akin to ghost stories, and discovered a taste for spinning yarns.
course foot gone held inside nor race smoked touched
My unworldliness, even at 21, was abnormal. Not only had I never smoked tobacco nor touched alcohol of any description, but I had never yet set foot inside a theatre, or gone to a race course I had never seen, nor held a billiard cue, nor touched a card.
leaves scene time vivid
A strong emotion, especially if experienced for the first time, leaves a vivid memory of the scene where it occurred.
lying men magic
No man can describe to another convincingly wherein lies the magic of the woman who ensnares him.
dream book dark
The dark side of life, and the horror of it, belonged to a world that lay remote from his own select little atmosphere of books and dreamings.
strong heart passion
But the wicked passions of men's hearts alone seem strong enough to leave pictures that persist the good are ever too luke-warm.
heart dust long
And if thought and emotion can persist in this way so long after the brain that sent them forth has crumpled into dust, how vitally important it must be to control their very birth in the heart, and guard them with the keenest possible restraint.
memories wall sight
No place worth knowing yields itself at sight, and those the least inviting on first view may leave the most haunting pictures upon the walls of memory.
reality standards proof
I searched everywhere for a proof of reality, when all the while I understood quite well that the standard of reality had changed
stars imagination world
My imagination requires a judicious rein; I am afraid to let it loose, for it carries me sometimes into appalling places beyond the stars and beneath the world.
beautiful moon evil
It is, alas, chiefly the evil emotions that are able to leave their photographs on surrounding scenes and objects and whoever heard of a place haunted by a noble deed, or of beautiful and lovely ghosts revisiting the glimpses of the moon?
wall heart darkness
To the Sabbath! To the Sabbath!' they cried. 'On to the Witches' Sabbath!" Up and down that narrow hall they danced, the women on each side of him, to the wildest measure he had ever imagined, yet which he dimly, dreadfully remembered, till the lamp on the wall flickered and went out, and they were left in total darkness. And the devil woke in his heart with a thousand vile suggestions and made him afraid.