Editing Arthur Machen (section)

===Genre fiction===
Historian of fantastic literature [[Brian Stableford]] has suggested that Machen "was the first writer of authentically modern horror stories, and his best works must still be reckoned among the finest products of the genre".<ref name="bs">"Machen, Arthur (Llewellyn)", by Brian Stableford in [[David Pringle]] (ed), ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic Writers''. London : St. James Press, 1998, {{ISBN|1558622063}} (pp. 382–84).</ref>

Machen's popularity in 1920s America has been noted, and his work was an influence on the development of the pulp horror found in magazines like ''[[Weird Tales]]'' and on such notable fantasy writers as [[James Branch Cabell]], [[Clark Ashton Smith]], [[Robert E. Howard]],<ref>Rusty Burke notes that Howard's early story "The Little People" is "clearly influenced by Arthur Machen's 'The Shining Pyramid'" (Rusty Burke, "Notes on Miscellanea" in Robert E. Howard, ''Bran Mak Morn: The Last King ''. New York: Del Rey/Ballantine, p. 193. {{ISBN|978-0-345-46154-4}}).</ref> [[Frank Belknap Long]] (who wrote a tribute to Machen in verse, "On Reading Arthur Machen"),<ref>Long's poem is republished in Lovecraft's ''Supernatural Horror in Literature''. See ''The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature'', ed. S. T. Joshi (Hippocampus Press, 2000), p. 62.</ref> [[Donald Wandrei]],<ref>Don Herron, "[http://www.donherron.com/collecting_donald_wandrei.html Collecting Donald Wandrei] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907101637/http://www.donherron.com/collecting_donald_wandrei.html |date=7 September 2008 }}", ''Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine'', Oct. 1999: "Within a decade Wandrei began to write appreciations of his favorite writers. His article 'Arthur Machen and The Hill of Dreams' appeared in the ''Minnesota Quarterly'' in spring 1926, and led to an exchange of letters with the Welsh mystic."</ref> [[David Lindsay (novelist)|David Lindsay]]<ref name="bs" /> and [[E. C. Vivian|E. Charles Vivian]].<ref>"Vivian, E(velyn) C(harles)", by [[Jack Adrian]] in the ''St. James Guide To Fantasy Writers'', edited by David Pringle. St. James Press, 1996, pp. 577–80 {{ISBN|1-55862-205-5}}</ref>

His significance was recognized by [[H. P. Lovecraft]], who in his essay "[[Supernatural Horror in Literature]]" named Machen as one of the four "modern masters" of supernatural horror (with [[Algernon Blackwood]], [[Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany|Lord Dunsany]], and [[M. R. James]]). Machen's influence on Lovecraft's own work was substantial. Lovecraft's reading of Machen in the early 1920s led him away from his earlier Dunsanian writing towards the development of what became the [[Cthulhu Mythos]]. Machen's use of a contemporary Welsh or London background in which sinister ancient horrors lurk and are capable of interbreeding with modern people obviously helped inspire Lovecraft's similar use of a New England background. Machen's story "[[The White People]]" includes references to curious unknown rites and beings, an idea Lovecraft uses frequently in the mythos.

Lovecraft pays tribute to the influence by directly incorporating some of Machen's creations and references, such as [[Nodens (Cthulhu Mythos)|Nodens]] and [[Aklo]], into his Cthulhu Mythos and using similar plotlines, most notably seen by a comparison of "[[The Dunwich Horror]]" to ''[[The Great God Pan]]'' and of "[[The Whisperer in Darkness]]" to "[[The Novel of the Black Seal]]". Other Lovecraft tales with a debt or reference to Machen include "[[The Call of Cthulhu]]", "[[The Festival (short story)|The Festival]]", "[[Cool Air]]", "[[The Descendant (short story)|The Descendant]]", and "[[The Colour Out of Space]]".{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

His intense, atmospheric stories of horror and the supernatural have been read and enjoyed by many modern horror and fantasy writers, influencing directly [[Peter Straub]], [[Stephen King]], [[Ramsey Campbell]], [[Karl Edward Wagner]],<ref>Benjamin Szumskyj, ''Black Prometheus: A Critical Study of Karl Edward Wagner'', Gothic Press, 2007 (p. 21)<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed, if any --></ref> "[[Sarban (author)|Sarban]]" (John William Wall),<ref>[[Peter Nicholls (writer)|Peter Nicholls]], "Sarban", in ''Supernatural Fiction Writers'' edited by E. F. Bleiler. Scribner's, New York, 1985. (pp. 667–74)</ref> [[Joanna Russ]],<ref>Joanna Russ, ''The Country You Have Never Seen:Essays and Reviews''; {{ISBN|0853238693}} (p. 58)</ref> [[Graham Joyce]], [[Simon Clark (novelist)|Simon Clark]], [[Tim Lebbon]], and {{nowrap|[[T. E. D. Klein]]}}, to name but a few. Klein's novel ''[[The Ceremonies (novel)|The Ceremonies]]'' was partly based on Machen's "The White People", and Straub's novel ''[[Ghost Story (Straub novel)|Ghost Story]]'' was influenced by ''The Great God Pan''.<ref name="Gwilym Games 2007">Gwilym Games (ed), ''Machenology: Tributes to the Master of Mysteries'', 2007.<!--publishing info needed; ISSN/ISBN needed, if any--></ref>