Editing Arthur Machen (section)

===Early years===
[[File:Caerleon-Arthur Machen's birthplace.JPG|thumb|left|220px|Machen's birthplace at The Square, High Street, [[Caerleon]]]]
Machen was born Arthur Llewelyn Jones in [[Caerleon]], [[Monmouthshire (historic)|Monmouthshire]]. The house of his birth, opposite the Olde Bull Inn in The Square at Caerleon is marked with a commemorative [[blue plaque]]. The landscape of Monmouthshire (which he usually referred to by the name of the medieval Welsh kingdom, [[Kingdom of Gwent|Gwent]]), with its associations of [[Celt]]ic, [[Wales in the Roman Era|Roman]], and [[medieval]] history, made a powerful impression on him, and his love of it is at the heart of many of his works.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}

[[File:The Old Rectory, Llanddewi Fach - geograph.org.uk - 1706021.jpg|thumb|220px|The Rectory, Llanddewi Fach—Machen's childhood home]]
Machen was descended from a long line of clergymen, the family having originated in [[Carmarthenshire]].<ref name=net/> In 1864, when Machen was two, his father John Edward Jones, became rector of the parish of [[Llanddewi Fach]] with [[Llandegveth]], about five miles north of Caerleon, and Machen was brought up at the rectory there.<ref name=Gwent>Hando, F.J., (1944) ''The Pleasant Land of Gwent'' – Chapter Nine, Arthur Machen, R. H. Johns, Newport.</ref> Jones had adopted his wife's maiden name, Machen, to inherit a legacy, legally becoming "Jones-Machen"; his son later used a shortened version, Arthur Machen, as a [[pen name]].{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}

Local historian and folklorist [[Fred Hando]] suggests Machen's early interest in the occult came from an article of [[alchemy]] in a volume of ''[[Household Words]]'' in his father's  library. Hando recounts Machen's other early reading:
<blockquote>
He bought De Quincey's ''[[Confessions of an English Opium-Eater]]'' at Pontypool Road Railway Station, ''[[The Arabian Nights]]'' at [[Hereford railway station|Hereford Railway Station]], and borrowed ''[[Don Quixote]]'' from Mrs. Gwyn, of Llanfrechfa Rectory. In his father's library he found also the ''[[Waverley Novels]]'', a three-volume edition of the ''Glossary of Gothic Architecture'', and an early volume of [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]].<ref name=Gwent/>
</blockquote>

At the age of eleven, Machen boarded at [[Hereford Cathedral School]], where he received a good education. His family could not afford for him to attend university, and Machen went to London, where he sat, but failed, exams for entrance to medical school. He displayed some literary promise and in 1881 published a long poem on the subject of the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]]. He attempted to make a living as a journalist, a publisher's clerk, and a children's tutor, devoting his evenings to writing and solitary walks.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}

In 1884 he published his second work, the pastiche ''The Anatomy of Tobacco'', and secured work with the publisher and bookseller [[George Redway]] as a cataloguer and magazine editor. This led to further work as a translator from French, translating the ''[[Heptaméron]]'' of [[Marguerite de Navarre]], ''Le Moyen de Parvenir'' (''Fantastic Tales'') of [[Béroalde de Verville]], and the ''[[Histoire de ma vie|Memoirs]]'' of [[Giacomo Casanova|Casanova]].<ref name="DWB"/>

In 1887, the year his father died,<ref name=net>{{cite web|url=http://www.caerleon.net/history/machen/text/page5.html|title=Arthur Machen|publisher=caerleon.net|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> Machen married Amelia (Amy) Hogg, an unconventional music teacher with a passion for the theatre, who had literary friends in London's [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] circles. Hogg had introduced Machen to the writer and occultist [[A. E. Waite]], who was to become one of Machen's closest friends. Machen also made the acquaintance of other literary figures, such as [[M. P. Shiel]] and [[Edgar Jepson]]. Soon after his marriage, Machen began to receive a series of legacies from Scottish relatives that allowed him to gradually devote more time to writing.<ref name="machensoc.demon.co.uk">[http://www.machensoc.demon.co.uk/machbiog.html Biography at the ''Friends of Arthur Machen'' website] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820152903/http://www.machensoc.demon.co.uk/machbiog.html |date=20 August 2007 }}</ref>