The Willows and Others: Collected Short Fiction of Algernon Blackwood, Volume 1

Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) was England's greatest writer of weird fiction in the early twentieth century. He escaped a repressive religious education by absorbing Hindu and Buddhist texts. Venturing to Canada to look for work, he established a deep connection with the natural world on frequent camping trips. But his subsequent years in New York (1892-99) thrust him in a filthy, overcrowded megalopolis that affected Blackwood profoundly. Returning to England, he began a literary career in earnest in the early years of the new century.

This is the first complete edition of Blackwood's short fiction, planned for six volumes. This volume contains stories he wrote from 1889 to 1907. Included are numerous stories uncollected in Blackwood's lifetime, including several interesting tales of romance, adventure, and childhood. "A Haunted Island" initiates his weird work; it and other stories in this volume were gathered in Blackwood's first book, The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories (1906).

Blackwood's work is profoundly autobiographical, and in this volume we find stories reflecting his experiences in Canada ("Skeleton Lake: An Episode in Camp"), New York (the striking psychological horror tale "Max Hensig"), England ("The Listener"), and elsewhere. It culminates with "The Willows," which H. P. Lovecraft believed to be the greatest weird tale in literature. It is a fictionalization of a trip made by Blackwood and a friend in 1900 down the Danube. In an appendix, his long essay "Down the Danube in a Canadian Canoe" is printed.

The volume has been edited by S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on weird fiction who has established the most accurate text of Blackwood's tales.