Algernon Blackwood

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Drawing by Blackwood

Algernon Blackwood ( Algernon Henry Blackwood ; born March 14, 1869 in Shooter's Hill , † December 10, 1951 ) was an English author , esotericist and theosophist .

life and work

Childhood, professions and wandering life

Blackwood was on March 14, 1869 as son of Sir Arthur Stevenson Blackwood and Sydney, Duchess of Manchester in Shooter's Hill, at that time part of the county Kent , now part of Greater London's City district Royal Borough of Greenwich , was born. After attending private schools , he wanted to become a psychiatrist . In 1885 he started at a school in the then to Austria-Hungary belonging to King field to study, moved in 1886 to the Wellington College in Crowthorne , which he in 1887 with the Bachelor of Medicine graduated. He lived in Switzerland for a year , then in Canada and finally started again at the University of Edinburgh , which he broke off again in 1890 due to lack of interest.

In May 1890 he traveled to Canada again, tried his hand at a farmer and in the hospitality industry , but without success. Around 1893 he went to New York , worked as a journalist for the Evening Sun and the New York Times , but was also in financial straits most of the time. In 1899 he returned to England, founded a dairy with a partner , but was not very involved in this business and preferred to travel around Europe. From 1908 to 1914 he lived in Switzerland.

As a theosophist

While he was studying in Königsfeld in 1885/1886, he came into contact with Indian philosophy and theosophy and found pleasure in them. He later joined the Theosophical Society and, on February 16, 1891 , co-founded the first theosophical lodge in Canada alongside Emily Stowe , Augusta Stowe-Gullen and Albert Smythe in Toronto .

In 1900 he joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , later he was in contact with Georges I. Gurdjieff and PD Ouspensky .

As an author

When he returned to England in 1899, he began to write. He is the author of numerous eerie short stories , including the character of the Shorthouse, who experiences various psychic adventures. What is remarkable is his very psychological approach and the concise, clear structure of his stories, which often captivate with their subtle portrayal of an eerie mood. His stories were u. a. also very much appreciated by HP Lovecraft .

Blackwood's work was strongly influenced by the impressions of his numerous travels. He also stated that he had seen ghostly apparitions himself and that he implemented this in his stories. The Wendigo tells the story of a demon who, according to an Indian legend, makes the North American forests unsafe.

Blackwood first became known to the public as a radio host. His haunting way of telling fantastic stories attracted a loyal crowd of listeners to the radio receivers.

One of his most notable stories is Die Weiden from the volume The Listener and Other Stories (1907, German in: The Empty House ) - this story served Johannes Maria Staud as a template for his opera of the same name . With its precise, almost second-style descriptions of the landscape, the morbid mood and the slowly burgeoning restlessness of the characters, this story is representative of Blackwood's work. Lovecraft considered it "possibly the most important scary story ever written."

Works (selection)

Novels and short stories
  • Jimbo (1909)
  • The Education of Uncle Paul (1910)
  • The Human Chord (1910)
  • The Centaur (1911)
  • A Prisoner in Fairyland (1913)
  • The Extra Day (1915)
  • Julius Le Vallon (1916)
  • The Wave: An Egyptian Aftermath (1916)
  • The Garden of Survival (1918)
  • The Promise of Air (1918)
  • The Bright Messenger (1922)
  • Dudley and Gilderoy: A Nonsense (1929)
Children's books
  • Sambo and Snitch (1927)
  • The Fruit Stoners (1934)
  • How the Circus Came to Tea (1936)
Collections of short stories
  • The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories (1906)
  • The Listener and Other Stories (1907)
  • John Silence, Physician Extraordinary (1908)
  • The Lost Valley and Other Stories (1910)
  • Best Ghost Stories (1911)
  • Pan's Garden. A Volume of Nature Stories (1912)
  • Ten Minute Stories (1914)
  • Incredible Adventures (1914)
  • Day and Night Stories (1917)
  • Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood (1920)
  • The Wolves of God and Other Fey Stories (with Wilfred Wilson) (1921)
  • Tongues of Fire and Other Sketches (1924)
  • Sambo and Snitch (1927)
  • The Dance of Death and Other Tales (1928)
  • Strange Stories (1929)
  • Full Circle (1929)
  • The Mask and Other Stories (1929)
  • The Willows and Other Queer Tales (1934)
  • Shocks (1936)
  • The Tales of Algernon Blackwood (1939)
  • The Doll and One Other (1946)
  • Tales of the Uncanny and the Supernatural (1949)
  • Selected Tales of Algernon Blackwood (1953)
Collections of German translations
  • Visit from over there. Scary stories . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-518-39201-8 .
  • The empty house. Stories . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-518-39164-X .
  • The handle from the dark. Ghost stories . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-518-37018-9 .
  • The dance to death. Scary stories . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-39292-1 .
  • The feathered soul. Narratives . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-518-38120-2 .
  • The pastures. A canoe trip on the Danube . Heinrich & Hahn, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-86597-044-2 .
  • Avenging fire. Narratives . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-518-38727-8 .
  • Aileen. Stories. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018, ISBN 978-1717416384

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Theosophy ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved March 22, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Blackwood, Algernon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blackwood, Algernon Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English author, esotericist and theosophist
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Shooter's Hill, Kent (now the Royal Borough of Greenwich ), England , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1951