William Hope Hodgson

William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918) was an English author of horror and fantastic fiction. He also attracted some notice as a photographer and a failed body-builder.

Related Topics:
1877 - 1918 - English - Horror - Fantastic fiction

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Hodgson ran away to sea at the age of thirteen and eventually served in the Merchant Marine. After a "body-building" business venture failed he decided to support himself by writing. His early works, "The Voice in the Night" and The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig', were based on his experiences at sea.

Related Topics:
Merchant Marine - The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig'

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Hodgson's works are chiefly of the 'occult' or 'horror' modes. Despite his often-labored and clumsy language, there is a critical consensus that he achieves a deep power of expression, which focusses on a sense not only of terror but of the ubiquity of potential terror, of the thinness of the invisible bound between the world of normalcy and an underlying reality for which humans are not suited.

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His two chief achievements are the novels The House on the Borderland, referred to by H. P. Lovecraft as "a classic of the first order", and The Night Land, a somber vision of a sunless far-future world. He also created the "detective of the occult" Thomas Carnacki, who appeared in several short stories.

Related Topics:
H. P. Lovecraft - The Night Land - Carnacki

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Hodgson was killed at Ypres in 1918.

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