Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen (March 3, 1863 - March 30, 1947) was a Welsh-born author of fantasy and horror fiction. He was born Arthur Llewelyn Jones, in Carleon-on-Usk; later he was called Arthur Jones-Machen.

Related Topics:
March 3 - 1863 - March 30 - 1947 - Welsh - Author - Fantasy - Horror fiction - Carleon-on-Usk

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He is known most for his writing around the beginning of the 20th century, much of it composed in a quite short period in the 1890s. Later in his career he became a journalist and an Anglican, and many of his later works have dated badly. Many are clumsy satires on science, materialism and Protestantism, all of which were anathema to Machen's mystical, Catholic temperament.

Related Topics:
20th century - Journalist - Anglican - Satires - Science - Materialism - Protestantism - Mystical - Catholic

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In 1924 he issued a collection of bad reviews of his own work, with very little commentary, under the title Precious Balms; and in 1922-23 he published two notable volumes of autobiography, Far Off Things and Things Near and Far.

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He endured poverty in later life, relieved by a Civil list pension from 1932. His intense, atmospheric stories of horror and the supernatural have influenced such modern writers as Ramsey Campbell and T. E. D. Klein. Klein's novel The Ceremonies was partly based on Machen's "The White People", and Peter Straub's novel Ghost Story was influenced by The Great God Pan.

Related Topics:
Civil list - Ramsey Campbell - T. E. D. Klein - Peter Straub

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There is an extensive critical analysis of Machen's work in S. T. Joshi's book The Weird Tale (1990).

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