Editing Algernon Blackwood (section)

==Life and work==
Blackwood was born in [[Shooter's Hill]] (now part of southeast London, then part of northwest [[Kent]]). Between 1871 and 1880, he lived at Crayford Manor House, [[Crayford]]<ref name=crayford>{{NHLE |num=1412621 |desc= Crayford Manor House|access-date=2016-02-07}}</ref> and he was educated at [[Wellington College (Berkshire)|Wellington College]]. His father, Sir [[Stevenson Arthur Blackwood]], was a Post Office administrator; his mother, Harriet Dobbs, was the widow of the [[George Montagu, 6th Duke of Manchester|6th Duke of Manchester]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=J.B. |title=Preferred the Simple Life |date=1952-01-19 |work=The Age |location=Melbourne, Australia |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123392353/?terms=blackwood&match=1 |access-date=2022-03-26}}</ref> According to [[Peter Penzoldt]], his father, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas".<ref>Peter Penzoldt, ''The Supernatural in Fiction'' (1952), Part II, Chapter 7.</ref> After Algernon read the work of a [[Hinduism|Hindu]] sage left behind at his parents' house, he developed an interest in [[Buddhism]] and other eastern philosophies.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/oct/27/featuresreviews.guardianreview32|title=Horror in the shadows|first=Kate|last=Mosse|newspaper=The Guardian |date=27 October 2007|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref>

Blackwood had a varied career, working as a dairy farmer in Canada, where he also operated a hotel for six months, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, bartender, model, journalist for ''[[The New York Times]]'', private secretary, businessman, and violin teacher.<ref name="Jack Sullivan 1986 p. 38">Jack Sullivan, ed. ''The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural'' (1986), p. 38.</ref> During his time in Canada, he also became one of the founding members of Toronto [[Theosophical Society]] in February 1891.<ref>[https://torontoist.com/2015/01/historicist-learning-the-writers-craft/ Historicist: Learning the Writer's Craft - Torontoist]</ref> Throughout his adult life, he was an occasional essayist for periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural. He was successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and later telling them on radio and television. He also wrote 14 novels, several children's books and a number of plays, most of which were produced, but not published. He was an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, as many of his stories reflect. To satisfy his interest in the supernatural, he joined [[The Ghost Club]]. He never married; according to his friends he was a loner, but also cheerful company.<ref>Jack Sullivan, ed. ''The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural'' (1986), p. 39</ref>

Jack Sullivan stated that "Blackwood's life parallels his work more neatly than perhaps that of any other ghost story writer. Like his lonely but fundamentally optimistic protagonists, he was a combination of mystic and outdoorsman; when he wasn't steeping himself in [[occultism]], including [[Rosicrucianism]], or Buddhism he was likely to be skiing or mountain climbing."<ref name="Jack Sullivan 1986 p. 38"/> Blackwood was a member of one of the factions of the [[Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn]],<ref>[[Israel Regardie|Regardie, Israel]] (1982). ''The Golden Dawn.'' Llewellyn Publications {{ISBN|0-87542-664-6}} p. ix.</ref> as was his contemporary [[Arthur Machen]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.shadowplayzine.com/Articles/hermetic_horrors.htm |title=Shadowplay Pagan and Magick webzine – HERMETIC HORRORS |work=Shadowplayzine.com |date=16 September 1904 |access-date=5 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091109074626/http://shadowplayzine.com/Articles/hermetic_horrors.htm |archive-date=9 November 2009 }}</ref> [[Hermetic Qabalah|Cabalistic]] themes influence his novel ''The Human Chord''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dirda |first=Michael |title=Bound to please |url=https://archive.org/details/boundtopleaseext00dird |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/boundtopleaseext00dird/page/221 221] |year=2005 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co. |isbn=0-393-05757-7 |quote=After these adventures in the New World...}}</ref>

His two best-known stories are probably "[[The Willows (story)|The Willows]]" and "[[The Wendigo (novella)|The Wendigo]]". He would also often write stories for newspapers at short notice, with the result that he was unsure exactly how many short stories he had written and there is no sure total. Though Blackwood wrote a number of [[horror fiction|horror stories]], his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe. Good examples are the novels ''The Centaur'', which reaches a climax with a traveller's sight of a herd of the mythical creatures; and ''Julius LeVallon'' and its sequel ''The Bright Messenger'', which deal with [[reincarnation]] and the possibility of a new, mystical [[evolution]] of human consciousness. In correspondence with [[Peter Penzoldt]], Blackwood wrote,<ref>Quoted in Peter Penzoldt, ''The Supernatural in Fiction'' (1952), Part II, Chapter 7.</ref>

<blockquote>
My fundamental interest, I suppose, is signs and proofs of other powers that lie hidden in us all; the extension, in other words, of human faculty. So many of my stories, therefore, deal with extension of consciousness; speculative and imaginative treatment of possibilities outside our normal range of consciousness.... Also, all that happens in our universe is ''natural''; under Law; but an extension of our so limited normal consciousness can reveal new, extra-ordinary powers etc., and the word "supernatural" seems the best word for treating these in fiction. I believe it possible for our consciousness to change and grow, and that with this change we may become aware of a new universe. A "change" in consciousness, in its type, I mean, is something more than a mere extension of what we already possess and know.
</blockquote>