Editing William Hope Hodgson (section)

==Life==
===Early years and life at sea===
Hodgson was born in the hamlet of Blackmore End near [[Braintree, Essex|Braintree]] in Essex, the son of the Reverend Samuel Hodgson, an [[Anglican]] priest, and Lissie Sarah Brown. He was the second of 12 children, three of whom died in infancy.<ref name="dfs" /> The death of a child is a theme in several of Hodgson's works including the short stories [[List of stories by William Hope Hodgson#"The Valley of Lost Children"|"The Valley of Lost Children"]], [[List of stories by William Hope Hodgson#"The Sea-Horses"|"The Sea-Horses"]], and [[Carnacki#"The Searcher of the End House"|"The Searcher of the End House"]].

Hodgson's father was moved frequently and served 11 different parishes in 21 years, including one in [[Ardrahan]], [[County Galway]], Ireland.<ref name="dfs" /> This setting was later featured in Hodgson's novel ''[[The House on the Borderland]]''.<ref name="dfs" />

Hodgson ran away from his boarding school at age 13, in an effort to become a sailor. He was caught and returned to his family, but eventually received his father's permission to be apprenticed as a [[cabin boy]] and began a four-year apprenticeship in 1891.<ref name="dfs" /> Hodgson's father died shortly thereafter, of throat cancer, leaving the family impoverished; while William was away, the family subsisted largely on charity. After his apprenticeship ended in 1895, Hodgson began two years of study in [[Liverpool]] and was then able to pass the tests and receive his mate's certificate; he then began several more years as a sailor.

At sea, Hodgson experienced bullying. This led him to begin a programme of personal training.<ref name="daa">[[Douglas A. Anderson|Anderson, Douglas A.]] "Introduction", in ''Adrift on the haunted seas : the best short stories of William Hope Hodgson''.
Cold Springs Harbor, NY : Cold Spring Press, 2005. {{ISBN|978-1-59360-049-5}} (pp. 7-11)</ref> According to [[Sam Moskowitz]],<ref name="Moskowitz_Storm">{{cite news|author=Moskowitz, Sam|title=William Hope Hodgson|work=Out of the Storm|location= West Kingston, RI|publisher= Donald M. Grant|date= 1975}}</ref>

<blockquote>The primary motivation of his body development was not health, but self-defence. His relatively short height and sensitive, almost beautiful face made him an irresistible target for bullying seamen. When they moved in to pulverize him, they would learn too late that they had come to grips with easily one of the most powerful men, pound for pound, in all England.</blockquote>

The theme of bullying of an apprentice by older seamen, and revenge taken, appeared frequently in his sea stories.

While away at sea, in addition to his exercises with weights and with a punching bag, Hodgson also practised his photography, taking photographs of [[aurora borealis]], cyclones, lightning, sharks, and the maggots that infested the food given to sailors. He also built up a stamp collection, practised his marksmanship while hunting, and kept journals of his experiences at sea.<ref name="dfs" /> In November 1898, he was awarded the [[Royal Humane Society]] medal for heroism for saving another sailor who, in March of the same year, had fallen from the topmast into the sea in shark-infested waters off the coast of New Zealand.<ref name="dfs" />

===Physical culture, essays and poetry===
In 1899, at age 22, he opened a School of Physical Culture in Ainsworth Street, [[Blackburn]], England, as "the inventor and teacher of a system that will cure indigestion". The School offered tailored exercise regimes for personal training.<ref name="hh">Kalush, William, and Sloman, Larry. ''The Secret Life of Houdini : the Making of America's First Superhero''.  London : Simon & Schuster, Limited, 2008. {{ISBN|978-1-84739-619-8}} (pp. 143-146).</ref> Among his customers were members of the Blackburn police force. In 1902, Hodgson himself appeared on stage with handcuffs and other restraining devices supplied by the Blackburn police department and applied the restraints to [[Harry Houdini]], who had previously escaped from the Blackburn jail.<ref name="hh" /> His behaviour towards Houdini generated controversy; the escape artist had some difficulty removing his restraints, complaining that Hodgson had deliberately injured him and jammed the locks of his handcuffs.<ref name="hh" />

Hodgson was not shy of publicity, and in another notable stunt, rode a bicycle down a street so steep that it had stairs, an event written up in the local paper. Despite his reputation, he eventually found that he could not earn a living running his personal training business, which was seasonal in nature, and shut it down. He began instead writing articles such as "Physical Culture versus Recreative Exercises" (published in 1903). One of these articles, "Health from Scientific Exercise", featured photographs of Hodgson himself demonstrating his exercises. The market for such articles seemed to be limited, however; so, inspired by authors such as [[Edgar Allan Poe]], [[H. G. Wells]], [[Jules Verne]] and [[Arthur Conan Doyle]],<ref name="wisker">{{cite book|author=Wisker, Gina|title=Horror fiction: An Introduction|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|date= 2005|isbn= 0-8264-1561-X|pages= 75–76}}</ref> Hodgson turned his attention to fiction, publishing his first short story, [[List of stories by William Hope Hodgson#"The Goddess of Death"|"The Goddess of Death"]], in 1904, followed shortly by "[[A Tropical Horror]]" (1905). He also contributed to an article in ''[[The Grand Magazine]]'', taking the "No" side in a debate on the topic "Is the Mercantile Navy Worth Joining?" In this piece, Hodgson laid out in detail his negative experiences at sea, including facts and figures about salaries. This led to a second article in ''[[The Nautical Magazine]]'', an exposé on the subject of apprenticeships; at the time, families often were forced to pay to have boys accepted as apprentices. Hodgson began to give paid lectures, illustrated with his photography in the form of colorized slides, about his experiences at sea.

Although he wrote a number of poems, only a handful were published during his lifetime; several, such as "[[Madre Mia]]" (1907), appeared as dedications to his novels. Apparently cynical about the prospects of publishing his poetry, in 1906 he published an article in ''The Author'' magazine, suggesting that poets could earn money by writing inscriptions for tombstones. Many of his poems were published by his widow in two posthumous collections, but some 48 poems were not published until their appearance in the collection ''The Lost Poetry of William Hope Hodgson'' (2005).

===Career in fiction, and marriage===
[[File:William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918).jpg|thumb|left|Hodgson at an unknown date|alt=Hodgson facing right, resting his head on his closed hand]]
Hodgson's first short story was "The Goddess of Death" (1904), in which he utilised a statue of Flora which stood in [[Corporation Park, Blackburn]], as the focus of a tale in which a Hindu statue, seized from an Indian temple, stood in a small English town. The statue comes alive to take its revenge on the people who stole it. ''The Royal Magazine'' published the story in April 1904.

In 1906, the American magazine ''The Monthly Story Magazine'' published [[William Hope Hodgson's Sargasso Sea Stories#"From the Tideless Sea Part One"|"From the Tideless Sea"]], the first of Hodgson's [[Sargasso Sea]] stories. Hodgson continued to sell stories to American magazines as well as British magazines for the remainder of his career, carefully managing the rights to his work in order to maximize his remuneration.<ref name="bs" />

While he still lived with his mother in relative poverty, his first published novel, ''[[The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"]]'', appeared in 1907, to positive reviews. Hodgson also published "[[The Voice in the Night (short story)|The Voice in the Night]]" the same year, as well as [[List of stories by William Hope Hodgson#"Through the Vortex of a Cyclone"|"Through the Vortex of a Cyclone"]], a realistic story inspired by Hodgson's experiences at sea and illustrated with tinted slides made from his own photographs; Hodgson had previously used these slides to illustrate a "lantern lecture" entitled "Through the Heart of a Cyclone", which he had given at the Trinity Wesleyan School in Montague Street, Blackburn, on 16 November 1906. Hodgson also explored the subject of ships and cyclones in his story [[List of stories by William Hope Hodgson#"The Shamraken Homeward-Bounder"|"The Shamraken Homeward-Bounder"]] (1908). Also in 1908, Hodgson published his second novel, ''[[The House on the Borderland]]'', again to positive reviews, as well as an unusual satirical science fiction story, [[List of stories by William Hope Hodgson#"Date 1965: Modern Warfare"|"Date 1965: Modern Warfare"]], a [[Jonathan Swift|Swiftian]] satire in which it is suggested that war should be carried out by men fighting in pens with knives, and the corpses carefully salvaged for food, although in letters to the editor published at the time, Hodgson expressed strong patriotic sentiments.

In 1909, he published [[List of stories by William Hope Hodgson#"Out of the Storm"|"Out of the Storm"]], a short horror story about "the death-side of the sea", in which the protagonist drowning in a storm rants about the horrors of a storm at sea.<ref name="bs" /> According to Moskowitz,

<blockquote>This story proved an emotional testament beyond all other evidence. Hodgson, whose literary success would be in a large measure based on the impressions he received at sea, actually hated and feared the waters with an intensity that was the passion of his life.<ref name="Moskowitz_Storm"/></blockquote>

Also in 1909, Hodgson published another novel, ''[[The Ghost Pirates]]''. In the foreword, he wrote that it

<blockquote>... completes what, perhaps, may be termed a trilogy; for, though very different in scope, each of the three books deals with certain conceptions that have an elemental kinship. With this book, the author believes that he closes the door, so far as he is concerned, on a particular phase of constructive thought.</blockquote>

''[[The Bookman (London)|The Bookman]]'' magazine in its review of the novel in 1909 concluded with the comment:

<blockquote>We can only hope that Mr. Hodgson may be induced to reconsider his decision, for we know of nothing like the author's previous work in the whole of present-day literature.</blockquote>

Despite the critical success of his novels, Hodgson remained relatively poor. To try to bolster his income from short story sales, he began working on the first of his recurring characters, Thomas [[Carnacki]], featured in several of his most famous stories and partly inspired by [[Algernon Blackwood]]'s occult detective [[John Silence]].<ref name="wisker"/> The first of these, [[Carnacki#"The Gateway of the Monster"|"The Gateway of the Monster"]], was published in ''[[The Idler (1892–1911)|The Idler]]'' (1910). In 1910, Hodgson also published [[List of stories by William Hope Hodgson#"The Captain of the Onion Boat"|"The Captain of the Onion Boat"]], an unusual story that combines a nautical tale and a romance. He continued to publish many stories and non-fiction pieces, occasionally resorting to the use of recycled plot elements and situations, sometimes to the annoyance of his publishers.

His last novel to see publication, ''[[The Night Land]]'', was published in 1912, although it likely had its genesis a number of years earlier.<ref name="bs" /> Hodgson also worked on a 10,000-word novelette version of the novel, now known as ''[[The Dream of X]]'' (1912). He continued to branch out into related genres, publishing [[List of stories by William Hope Hodgson#"Judge Barclay's Wife"|"Judge Barclay's Wife"]], a [[Western (genre)|Western]] adventure, in the United States, as well as several non-supernatural mystery stories and the science fiction story "[[The Derelict (Hodgson)|The Derelict]]" (1912), and even war stories (several of the [[Captain Gault]] tales feature wartime themes).

In 1912, Hodgson married Betty Farnworth, known also as Bessie, a girl from [[Cheadle Hulme]] and a staff member who wrote the "agony" column for the women's magazine ''Home Notes''. Both were 35. She gave up her job after they married on 26 February 1913, in the London borough of Kensington. They moved to the south of France and took up residence there, owing in part to the low cost of living. Hodgson began a work entitled "Captain Dang (An account of certain peculiar and somewhat memorable adventures)" and continued to publish stories in multiple genres, although financial security continued to elude him. When war broke out in Europe, the Hodgsons returned to England.

===Later life, World War I experience===
[[File:William_Hope_Hodgson.jpg|thumb|Hodgson in uniform|alt=Hodgson in uniform, facing right]]
Hodgson joined{{when|date=July 2022}} the University of London's [[Officers' Training Corps]]. Refusing to have anything to do with the sea despite his experience and [[Third Mate]]'s certificate, he received a commission as a second lieutenant in the [[Royal Artillery]] on 3 July 1915.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29226|supp=2|page=6803|date=10 July 1915}}</ref> In 1916, he was thrown from a horse and suffered a broken jaw and a serious head injury; he received a mandatory discharge on 10 June 1916,<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=29903|supp=3|page=572|date=15 January 1917}} Substituted for the notice in {{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=29618|page=5737|date=9 June 1916}}</ref> and returned to writing.

Refusing to remain on the sidelines of WWI, Hodgson recovered sufficiently to re-enlist, receiving a new commission as second lieutenant on 18 March 1917.<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=29991|supp=5|page=2725|date=17 March 1917}}</ref> On 10 October 1917 he was promoted to lieutenant, though this was not gazetted until after his death.<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=31141|supp=5|page=1192|date=24 January 1919}}</ref> His published articles and stories from the time reflect his experience in war.

===Death===
Hodgson was killed by the direct impact of an artillery shell at the [[Battle of the Lys (1918)|Fourth Battle of Ypres]] in April 1918; sources suggest either the 17th or 19th.<ref name="bs" /> He was eulogized in ''[[The Times]]'' on 2 May 1918. The American magazine ''[[Adventure (magazine)|Adventure]]'', to which Hodgson had contributed fiction, also ran an obituary which reprinted a clipping from his widow, describing how Hodgson led a group of
[[Non-commissioned officer|NCOs]] to safety under heavy fire.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jones, Robert Kenneth|title=The Lure of "Adventure"|publisher=Starmont House|date=1989|pages= 8–9|isbn= 1-55742-142-0}}</ref>