NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen (pronounced /ˈmækən/) (March 3, 1863 – December 15, 1947) was a leading Welsh author of the 1890s. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. He also is well known for his leading role in creating the legend of the Angels of Mons. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 62nd day of the year (63rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... , Caerleon (Welsh: ) is a suburban village and community, situated on the River Usk in the northern outskirts of the city of Newport (of which it is also a electoral ward) in south-east Wales. ... For other uses, see Newport (disambiguation). ... Monmouthshire is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, covering south-east Wales. ... is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about work. ... A literary genre is one of the divisions of literature into genres according to particular criteria such as literary technique, tone, or content. ... â€œHorror storyâ€ redirects here. ... For other definitions of fantasy see fantasy (psychology). ... Supernatural fiction is a classification of literature used to describe fiction exploiting or requiring as plot devices or themes some contradictions of the commonplace natural world and materialist assumptions about it. ... Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (November 13, 1850 â€“ December 3, 1894), was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of Neo-romanticism in English literature. ... Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 â€“ October 7, 1849) was an American poet, short story writer, playwright, editor, literary critic, essayist and one of the leaders of the American Romantic Movement. ... Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 â€“ March 15, 1937) was an American author of fantasy, horror and science fiction, noted for combining these three genres within single narratives. ... Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 â€“ June 11, 1936)[1] was a classic American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. ... Peter Straub at the University of South Florida on February 15, 2007 Peter Francis Straub, born March 2, 1943 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a writer of fiction and poetry, best known as a prolific horror author. ... John Ramsey Campbell (born January 4, 1946 in Liverpool) is a British writer considered by a number of critics to be one of the great masters of horror fiction. ... Graham Joyce is an English writer of speculative fiction. ... Simon Clark is a horror novel writer from Doncaster, England. ... Mark Samuels is a London based writer of horror and fantastic fiction in the tradition of Arthur Machen and H.P. Lovecraft. ... Theodore Eibon Donald Klein (born 1947) is an American horror writer and editor. ... is the 62nd day of the year (63rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the country. ... For other uses, see Author (disambiguation). ... Supernatural fiction is a classification of literature used to describe fiction exploiting or requiring as plot devices or themes some contradictions of the commonplace natural world and materialist assumptions about it. ... For other definitions of fantasy see fantasy (psychology). ... â€œHorror storyâ€ redirects here. ... For other uses, see Legend (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Biography

Early years

Machen was born Arthur Llewelyn Jones, in Caerleon (now part of Newport), Monmouthshire, though he usually referred to the county by its Welsh name Gwent. His father, John Edward Jones, became vicar of the tiny church of Llandewi Fach, near Caerleon, and his son was brought up at the rectory there. Later his father adopted his mother's maiden name, Machen, to inherit a legacy, becoming "Jones-Machen", and his son just used the name Arthur Machen as a pen-name. , Caerleon (Welsh: ) is a suburban village and community, situated on the River Usk in the northern outskirts of the city of Newport (of which it is also a electoral ward) in south-east Wales. ... For other uses, see Newport (disambiguation). ... Monmouthshire is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, covering south-east Wales. ... Gwent is the area of south-easternmost Wales, bordering on the Welsh Marches of southwest England. ...

Machen's love of the beautiful landscape of Monmouthshire with its associations with Celtic, Roman, and medieval history made a powerful impression on him which is at the heart of many of his works. This article is about the European people. ... For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation). ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ...

At the age of eleven, Machen boarded at Hereford Cathedral School, where he received an excellent classical education. Family poverty ruled out attendance at university, and Machen was sent to London, where he sat exams to attend medical school but failed to get in. Machen, however, showed literary promise, publishing in 1881 a long poem "Eleusinia" on the subject of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Returning to London, he lived in relative poverty, attempting to work as a journalist, as a publisher's clerk, and as a children’s tutor while writing in the evening and going on long rambling walks across London. Hereford Cathedral School is a co-educational independent school and member of the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... The Eleusinian Mysteries (Greek: á¼˜Î»ÎµÏ…ÏƒÎ¯Î½Î¹Î± ÎœÏ…ÏƒÏ„Î®ÏÎ¹Î±) were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. ...

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 Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre, Le Moyen de Parvenir (Fantastic Tales) of Béroalde de Verville, and the Memoirs of Casanova. Machen's translations in a spirited English style became standard ones for many years. For the medieval grimoire called the Heptameron, see Pietro dAbano. ... Marguerite of Navarre (April 11, 1492 - December 21, 1549), also known as Marguerite of Angouleme and Margaret of Navarre, was the queen consort of King Henry II of Navarre. ... FranÃ§ois BÃ©roalde de Verville (Paris, April 27, 1556 - October 19-26, 1626) was a French Renaissance novelist, poet and intellectual. ... Casanova redirects here. ...

In 1887, Machen married Amy Hogg, an unconventional music teacher with a passion for the theatre, who had literary friends in London's 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.^[1] Arthur Edward Waite (October 2, 1857 _ May 19, 1942) was an occultist and co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. ... Matthew Phipps Shiel (July 21, 1865 â€“ February 17, 1947), was a prolific British writer of fantastic fiction, remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances, published as novels, short stories and as serials. ... Edgar Alfred Jepson (1863 - 1938) was an English writer, principally of mainstream adventure and detective fiction, but also of some supernatural and fantasy stories that are better remembered. ...

Literary decadence in the 1890s

Around 1890 Machen began to publish in literary magazines, writing stories influenced by the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, some of which used gothic or fantastic themes. This led to his first major success, "The Great God Pan". It was published in 1894 by John Lane in the noted Keynotes Series, which was part of the growing aesthetic movement of the time. Machen’s story was widely denounced for its sexual and horrific content and subsequently sold well, going into a second edition. Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (November 13, 1850 â€“ December 3, 1894), was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of Neo-romanticism in English literature. ... The gothic novel is an English literary genre, which can be said to have been born with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole. ... For other uses, see Fantasy (disambiguation). ... The Great God Pan was a novella written by Arthur Machen. ... John Lane (March 14, 1854 - February 2, 1925) was a British publisher. ... The Aesthetic movement is a loosely defined movement in art and literature in later nineteenth century Britain. ...

Machen next produced The Three Impostors, a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895. The novel and the stories within it were eventually to be regarded as among Machen’s best works. The Three Impostors is an episodic novel by British horror fiction writer Arthur Machen, first published in 1895 in the Bodley Heads Keynote Series. ...

However, following the scandal surrounding Oscar Wilde later that year, Machen’s association with works of decadent horror made it difficult for him to find a publisher for new works. Thus, though he would write some of his greatest works over the next few years, some were published much later. These included The Hill of Dreams, Hieroglyphics, A Fragment of Life, the story "The White People", and the stories which make up Ornaments in Jade.^[2] Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854 â€“ November 30, 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories. ... The Hill of Dreams A semi-autobiographical novel by Arthur Machen. ... The White People is a short horror story by Welsh writer Arthur Machen. ...

Tragedy and acting: 1899-1910

In 1899, Machen’s wife Amy died of cancer after a long period of illness. This had a devastating effect on Machen. He only gradually recovered from his loss over the next year, partially through his close friendship with A. E. Waite. It was through Waite’s influence that Machen joined at this time the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, though Machen’s interest in the organization was not a lasting one. Year 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn) was a magical order of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, practicing a form of theurgy and spiritual development. ...

Machen’s recovery was further helped by his sudden change of career, becoming an actor in 1901 and a member of Frank Benson’s company of traveling players, a profession which took him round the country. This led in 1903 to a second marriage, to Dorothie Purefoy Hudleston, which brought Machen much happiness. Machen managed to find a publisher in 1902 for his earlier written work Hieroglyphics, an analysis of the nature of literature, which concluded that true literature must convey ecstasy. In 1906 Machen’s literary career began once more to flourish as the book The House of Souls collected his most notable works of the nineties and brought them to a new audience. He also published a satirical work, Dr Stiggins: His Views and Principles, generally considered one of his weakest works. Frank Benson is the name of: Frank Weston Benson, an American impressionist artist F.R. Benson, a British actor-manager This human name article is a disambiguation page â€” a list of pages that might otherwise share the same title, which is a persons or persons name. ...

Machen also was at this time investigating Celtic Christianity, the Holy Grail and King Arthur. Publishing his views in Lord Alfred Douglas’s The Academy, for which he wrote regularly, Machen concluded that the legends of the Grail actually were based on dim recollections of the rites of the Celtic Church. These ideas also featured strongly in the novel The Secret Glory, which he wrote at this time, marking the first use of the idea in fiction of the Grail surviving into modern times in some form, an idea much utilised ever since as by Charles Williams (UK writer), Dan Brown and in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In 1907, The Hill of Dreams, generally considered Machen’s masterpiece, was finally published, though it was not recognized much at the time.^[3] Celtic Christianity, or Insular Christianity (sometimes commonly called the Celtic Church) broadly refers to the Early Medieval Christian practice that developed around the Irish Sea in the fifth and sixth centuries: that is, among Celtic/British peoples such as the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Manx (the inhabitants of the British... For other uses, see Holy Grail (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see King Arthur (disambiguation). ... Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 â€“ 20 March 1945) was a poet, a translator and a prose writer, better known as the intimate friend and lover of the writer Oscar Wilde. ... An academy is an institution for the study of higher learning. ... Charles Walter Stansby Williams (September 20, 1886 â€“ May 15, 1945), was a British writer and poet, and a member of the loose literary circle called the Inklings. ... This article is about the writer. ... Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Julian Glover, Alison Doody, River Phoenix, and John Rhys-Davies. ...

The next few years saw Machen continue with acting in various companies and with journalistic work, but he was finding it increasingly hard to earn a living and his legacies were long exhausted. Machen was also attending literary gatherings like the New Bohemians and the Square Club. New Bohemians can refer to: New Bohemians Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, a band. ... The Square Club for writers was a monthly dining club that met in London, from 1908/9 to about 1913/4, and included many of the established younger-generation authors. ...

Journalism and the Great War: 1910-1921

Finally Machen accepted a full-time journalist’s job at Alfred Harmsworth’s Evening News in 1910. In February 1912 his son Hilary was born, followed by a daughter Janet in 1917. The coming of war in 1914 saw Machen return to public prominence for the first time in twenty years due to the publication of "The Bowmen" and the subsequent publicity surrounding the "Angels of Mons" episode. He published a series of stories capitalizing on this success, most of which were morale-boosting propaganda, but the most notable, The Great Return (1915), and the novella The Terror (1917), were more accomplished. He also published a series of autobiographical articles during the war, later published as Far Off Things. During the war years Machen also met and championed the work of a fellow Welshman Caradoc Evans.^[4] Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (July 15, 1865, Dublin - August 14, 1922, London) was an influential and successful newspaper owner. ... Front page of the first issue of the Evening News from July 26 1881. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Caradoc Evans (1878-1945) was a Welsh story writer, novelist and playwright. ...

In general, though, Machen thoroughly disliked work at the newspaper, and it was only the need to earn money for his family which kept him at it. The money came in useful, allowing him to move in 1919 to a bigger house with a garden, in St John's Wood, which became a noted location for literary gatherings attended by friends like the painter Augustus John, Wyndham Lewis, and Jerome K. Jerome. Machen’s dismissal from the Evening News in 1921 came as a relief in one sense, though it caused financial problems. Machen, however, was recognized as a great Fleet Street character by his contemporaries, and he remained in demand as an essay writer for much of the twenties. St Johns Wood is a district of North London, England in the City of Westminster, near Regents Park. ... Artist John, on a 1928 Time cover Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, (January 4, 1878 â€“ October 31, 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. ... Wyndham Lewis in 1916 Percy Wyndham Lewis (November 18, 1882 â€“ March 7, 1957) was a Canadian-born British painter and author. ... Jerome Klapka Jerome (May 2, 1859 â€“ June 14, 1927) was an English author, best known for the humorous travelogue Three Men in a Boat. ...

The Machen Boom of the Twenties

The year 1922 also saw a revival in Machen’s literary fortunes. The Secret Glory was finally published, as was his autobiography Far Off Things, and new editions of Machen’s Casanova, The House of Souls and The Hill of Dreams all came out. Machen’s works had now found a new audience and publishers in America, and a series of requests for republications of books started to come in. Vincent Starrett, James Branch Cabell, and Carl Van Vechten were American Machen devotees who helped in this process.^[5] Vincent Starrett (October 26, 1886 â€“ January 5, 1974) was an American writer and newspaperman. ... James Branch Cabell photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1935 James Branch Cabell (April 14, 1879 - May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. ... Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 â€“ December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. ...

A sign of his rising fortunes were shown by publication in 1923 of a collected edition of his works and a bibliography. That year also saw the publication of a recently completed second volume of autobiography, Things Near and Far—the final volume, The London Adventure, being published in 1924. Machen’s earlier works suddenly started becoming much sought after collectors items at this time, a position they have held ever since. In 1924 he issued a collection of bad reviews of his own work, with very little commentary, under the title Precious Balms.

Final years: 1926-1947

By 1926 the boom in republication was mostly over, and Machen’s income dropped. He continued republishing earlier works in collected editions, as well as writing essays and articles for various magazines and newspapers and contributing forewords and introductions to both his own and other writers' works, but produced little new fiction. In 1927, he became a manuscript reader for the publisher Ernest Benn, which brought in a much-needed regular income until 1933.

In 1929, Machen and his family moved away from London to Amersham in Buckinghamshire, but they still faced financial hardship. He received some recognition for his literary work when he received a Civil List pension of one hundred pounds in 1932, but the loss of work from Benns a year later made things difficult once more. A few more collections of Machen’s shorter works were published in the thirties, partially as a result of the championing of Machen by John Gawsworth, who also began work on a biography of Machen that was only published in 2005 thanks to The Friends of Arthur Machen.^[6] Amersham (previously Agmondesham) is a market town 27 miles north west of London, in the Chiltern Hills, England. ... John Gawsworth (June 29, 1912 - September 23, 1970), a pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong, was a British writer, poet and compiler of anthologies, both of poetry and of short stories. ... The Friends of Arthur Machen (FoAM) is a non-profit international literary society founded in 1998 dedicated to supporting interest in Arthur Machen and his work, and to aid research. ...

Machen’s financial difficulties were only finally ended by the literary appeal launched in 1943 for his eightieth birthday. The initial names on the appeal show the general recognition of Machen’s stature as a distinguished man of letters, as they included Max Beerbohm, T. S. Eliot, Bernard Shaw, Walter de la Mare, Algernon Blackwood, and John Masefield. The success of the appeal allowed Machen to live the last few years of his life, until 1947, in relative comfort. Max Beerbohm by William Rothenstein, 1893 Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (August 24, 1872 - May 20, 1956) was an English parodist and caricaturist. ... Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 â€“ January 4, 1965), was a poet, dramatist and literary critic. ... Multiple people share the name Bernard Shaw: George Bernard Shaw, the celebrated Irish playwright (1856 - 1950) Bernard Shaw, a journalist and longtime CNN anchorman (1940 - ) This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Walter John de la Mare, OM CH (April 25, 1873 â€“ June 22, 1956), was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and The Listeners. He was born in Kent (at 83 Maryon Road, Charlton[1] - now part of the London Borough... Algernon Henry Blackwood (March 14, 1869 â€“ December 10, 1951) was an English writer of tales of the supernatural. ... John Edward Masefield, OM, (1 June 1878 â€“ 12 May 1967), was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death in 1967. ...

Philosophy and religion

From the beginning of his literary career, Machen espoused a mystical belief that the humdrum ordinary world hid a more mysterious and strange world beyond. His gothic and decadent works of the 1890s concluded that the lifting of this veil could lead to madness, sex, or death, and usually a combination of all three. Machen’s later works became somewhat less obviously full of gothic trappings, but for him investigations into mysteries invariably resulted in life-changing transformation and sacrifice. Machen loved the medieval world view because he felt it combined deep spirituality alongside a rambunctious earthiness. Mysticism (ancient Greek mysticon = secret) is meditation, prayer, or theology focused on the direct experience of union with divinity, God, or Ultimate Reality, or the belief that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge. ... Decadence was the name given, first by hostile critics, and then triumphantly adopted by some writers themselves, to a number of late nineteenth century fin de siècle writers associated with Symbolism or the Aesthetic movement. ...

Machen was a great enthusiast for literature that he felt to be expressive of the joy inherent in life, thus conveying a feeling of ecstasy. His main passions were for writers and writing he felt achieved this, an idiosyncratic list which included the Mabinogion and other medieval romances, François Rabelais, Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, Thomas de Quincy, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Those writers who failed to achieve this, or far worse did not even attempt it, received short shrift from Machen. The Mabinogion is a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts. ... As a literary genre, romance or chivalric romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. ... FranÃ§ois Rabelais FranÃ§ois Rabelais (c. ... Cervantes redirects here. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... For other persons named Samuel Johnson, see Samuel Johnson (disambiguation). ... Thomas de Quincey (August 15, 1785 - December 8, 1859) was an English author and intellectual. ... Dickens redirects here. ... Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859â€“7 July 1930) was a British author most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. ... Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 â€“ October 7, 1849) was an American poet, short story writer, playwright, editor, literary critic, essayist and one of the leaders of the American Romantic Movement. ... Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (November 13, 1850 â€“ December 3, 1894), was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of Neo-romanticism in English literature. ...

Machen’s strong opposition to a materialistic viewpoint is obvious in many of his works, marking him as part of neo-romanticism. He was deeply suspicious of science, materialism, commerce, and Puritanism, all of which were anathema to Machen's conservative, bohemian, mystical, and ritualistic temperament. Machen’s virulent satirical streak against things he disliked has been regarded as a weakness in his work, and rather dating, especially when it comes to the fore in works such as Dr Stiggins. Similarly, some of his propagandistic First World War stories also have little appeal to a modern audience. The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in music and painting. ... A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor demonstrates the Meissner effect. ... In philosophy, materialism is that form of physicalism which holds that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; that fundamentally, all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions; that matter is the only substance. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Puritans were members of a group of radical Protestants which developed in England after the Reformation. ... Ths article deals with conservatism as a political philosophy. ... For other uses, see Bohemian (disambiguation). ... Mysticism (ancient Greek mysticon = secret) is meditation, prayer, or theology focused on the direct experience of union with divinity, God, or Ultimate Reality, or the belief that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

Machen, brought up as the son of a Church of England clergyman, always held Christian beliefs, though accompanied by a fascination with sensual mysticism; his interests in paganism and the occult were especially prominent in his earliest works. Machen was well read on such matters as alchemy, the kabbalah, and Hermeticism, and these occult interests formed part of his close friendship with A. E. Waite. Machen, however, was always very down to earth, requiring substantial proof that a supernatural event had occurred, and was thus highly sceptical of spiritualism. Unlike many of his contemporaries, such as Oscar Wilde and Alfred Douglas, his disapproval of the Reformation and his admiration for the medieval world and its Roman Catholic ritualism did not fully tempt him away from Anglicanism—though he never fitted comfortably into the Victorian Anglo-Catholic world. The Church of England logo since 1998 The Church of England is the officially established Christian church[1] in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Pagan and heathen redirect here. ... For other uses, see Occult (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Alchemy (disambiguation). ... This article is about traditional Jewish Kabbalah. ... This article is about the magical and religious movement stemming from the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus. ... For other uses, see Supernatural (disambiguation). ... // By 1853, when the popular song Spirit Rappings was published, Spiritualism was an object of intense curiosity. ... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... This box: Anglicanism most commonly refers to the beliefs and practices of the Anglican Communion, a world-wide affiliation of Christian Churches, most of which have historical connections with the Church of England. ... ...

The death of his first wife led him to a spiritual crossroads, and he experienced a series of mystical events. After his experimentation with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the orthodox ritual of the Church became ever more important to him, gradually defining his position as a High Church Anglican who was able to incorporate elements from his own mystical experiences, Celtic Christianity, and readings in literature and legend into his thinking. High Church relates to ecclesiology and liturgy in Christian theology and practice. ... Celtic Christianity, or Insular Christianity (sometimes commonly called the Celtic Church) broadly refers to the Early Medieval Christian practice that developed around the Irish Sea in the fifth and sixth centuries: that is, among Celtic/British peoples such as the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Manx (the inhabitants of the British...

Legacy and influence

Machen’s literary significance is substantial; his stories have been translated into many languages and reprinted in short story anthologies countless times. In the sixties, a paperback reprint in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series brought him to the notice of a new generation. More recently, the small press has continued to keep Machen's work in print. Launched in 1969 (presumably in response to the growing popularity of Tolkiens works), the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series reissued a number of works of fantasy literature, which were out of print or dispersed in back issues of pulp magazines (or otherwise not easily available in the United States), in... The Dun Emer Press in 1903 with Elizabeth Yeats working the hand press Small press is a term often used to describe publishers who typically specialize in genre fiction, or limited edition books or magazines. ...

Literary critics such as Wesley D. Sweetser see Machen’s works as a significant part of the late Victorian revival of the gothic novel and the decadent movement of the 1890s, bearing direct comparison to the themes found in contemporary works like Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. At the time authors like Wilde, William Butler Yeats, and Arthur Conan Doyle were all admirers of Machen’s works. He is also usually noted in the better studies of Anglo-Welsh literature. Dr. Wesley Duaine Sweetser (1919 â€“ 2006) was an English critic. ... Strawberry Hill, an English villa in the Gothic revival style, built by seminal Gothic writer Horace Walpole The gothic novel was a literary genre that belonged to Romanticism and began in the United Kingdom with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole. ... Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde[1] is a novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and first published in 1886. ... Abraham Bram Stoker (November 8, 1847 â€“ April 20, 1912) was an Irish writer, best remembered as the author of the influential horror novel Dracula. ... This article is about the novel. ... The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only published novel written by Oscar Wilde, and first came out as the lead story in Lippincotts Monthly Magazine on 20 June 1890. ... William Butler Yeats, 1933. ... Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859â€“7 July 1930) was a British author most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. ... Anglo-Welsh literature is a term used to describe works written in the English language by Welsh writers, especially if they either have subject matter relating to Wales or (as in the case of Anglo_Welsh poetry in particular) are influenced by the Welsh language in terms of patterns of usage...

His popularity in 1920s America has been noted, and Machen’s 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, and Robert E. Howard. This page is about the fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine and its heirs. ... James Branch Cabell photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1935 James Branch Cabell (April 14, 1879 - May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. ... Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893-August 14, 1961) was a poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. ... Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 â€“ June 11, 1936)[1] was a classic American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. ...

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, Lord Dunsany, and M. R. James). Machen’s influence on Lovecraft’s own work is 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. The story "The White People" includes strange references to curious unknown rites and beings, an idea Lovecraft uses frequently in the mythos. This article is about the author. ... Supernatural Horror in Literature is a collection of essays written in 1927 and added to between 1933 and 1935 by the famed fantasy and horror author H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). ... Algernon Henry Blackwood (March 14, 1869 â€“ December 10, 1951) was an English writer of tales of the supernatural. ... Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany (24 July 1878 â€“ 25 October 1957) was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist, notable for his work in fantasy published under the name Lord Dunsany. ... Montague Rhodes James, OM (August 1, 1862 â€“ June 12, 1936), who published under the byline M. R. James, was a noted British mediaeval scholar and provost of Kings College, Cambridge (1905â€“1918) and of Eton College (1918â€“1936). ... Cthulhu and Rlyeh The Cthulhu Mythos encompasses the shared elements, characters, settings, and themes in the works of H. P. Lovecraft and associated horror fiction writers. ...

Lovecraft pays tribute to the influence by directly incorporating some of Machen’s creations and references, such as 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 Novel of the Black Seal" to "The Whisperer in Darkness". Other Lovecraft tales with a debt or reference to Machen include "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Festival", "Cool Air", "The Descendant", and "The Colour Out of Space". Nodens (Lord of the Great Abyss, Nuada of the Silver Hand) is a fictional character in the Cthulhu mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. ... Aklo is a fictional language. ... The Dunwich Horror is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. ... The Great God Pan was a novella written by Arthur Machen. ... The Three Impostors is a episodic novel by British horror fiction writer Arthur Machen, first published in 1895. ... The Whisperer in Darkness is a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, written in 1930. ... Cthulhu with the insane city Rlyeh in the background. ... The Festival is a short story by H.P. Lovecraft written in 1925. ... Cool Air was one of H.P. Lovecrafts less popular works, although it is highly regarded among his more serious fans. ... The Descendant is a story fragment by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, believed to have been written in 1927. ... The Colour Out of Space is a short story by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. ...

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, Ramsey Campbell, Graham Joyce, Simon Clark, Tim Lebbon, Mark Samuels, and T. E. D. Klein, to name but a few. Klein's novel The Ceremonies was partly based on Machen's "The White People", and Straub's novel Ghost Story was influenced by "The Great God Pan".^[7] Peter Straub at the University of South Florida on February 15, 2007 Peter Francis Straub, born March 2, 1943 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a writer of fiction and poetry, best known as a prolific horror author. ... John Ramsey Campbell (born January 4, 1946 in Liverpool) is a British writer considered by a number of critics to be one of the great masters of horror fiction. ... Graham Joyce is an English writer of speculative fiction. ... Simon Clark is a horror novel writer from Doncaster, England. ... Mark Samuels is a London based writer of horror and fantastic fiction in the tradition of Arthur Machen and H.P. Lovecraft. ... Theodore Eibon Donald Klein (born 1947) is an American horror writer and editor. ... The White People is a short horror story by Welsh writer Arthur Machen. ... Ghost Story is a famous horror novel by Peter Straub that was published in 1979 by Coward, McCann Geoghegan. ...

Machen’s influence is not limited to genre fiction, however. Jorge Luis Borges recognized Machen as a great writer, and through him Machen has had an influence on magic realism. He was also a major influence on Paul Bowles, Javier Marias and Paul-Jean Toulet. He was one of the most significant figures in the life of the Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, who attributed to Machen his conversion to High Church Anglicanism, an important part of his philosophy and poetry. Machen's niece Sylvia Townsend Warner admired Machen and was influenced by him^[8], as is his great-granddaughter, contemporary artist Tessa Farmer^[9]. Borges redirects here. ... Magic realism (or magical realism) is an artistic genre in which magical elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting. ... Paul Frederic Bowles (December 30, 1910 - November 18, 1999), was an American composer, author, and traveler. ... Javier Marías, (born September 20, 1951), is a Spanish novelist, translator and columnist. ... Paul-Jean Toulet (1867 - 1920) was a French poet. ... A Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and often expected to compose poems for State occasions and other government events. ... A collection of Betjemans poetry, published by John Murray in January 2006 Sir John Betjeman CBE (28 August 1906 â€“ 19 May 1984) was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Whos Who as a poet and hack. He was born to a middle-class family... Sylvia Townsend Warner was an English writer and poet who lived from 1893 - 1978. ... Tessa Farmer (born 1978, Birmingham, UK) is an artist based in London. ...

Machen was also a pioneer in psychogeography, due to his interest in the interconnection between landscape and the mind. His strange wanderings in Wales and London recorded in his beautiful prose make him of great interest to writers on this subject, especially those focusing on London, such as Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd. Alan Moore wrote an exploration of Machen’s mystical experiences in his work Snakes and Ladders. Aleister Crowley loved Machen’s works, feeling they contained "Magickal" truth, and put them on the reading list for his students, though Machen, who never met him, detested Crowley. Other occultists, such as Kenneth Grant, also find Machen an inspiration. Far closer to Machen's personal mystical world view was his effect on his friend Evelyn Underhill, who reflected some of Machen's thinking in her highly influential book Mysticism. Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as the the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals. ... For the Australian politician, see Ian Sinclair Iain Sinclair is a British writer and film maker. ... Peter Ackroyd (born October 5, 1949, London) is an English author. ... For other persons named Alan Moore, see Alan Moore (disambiguation). ... Snakes and ladders, or Chutes and ladders, is a classic childrens board game. ... Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, (12 October 1875 â€“ 1 December 1947; the surname is pronounced // i. ... This article is about the British occultist. ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) was an Anglican writer on mysticism, a novelist, and a metaphysical poet. ...

To date, apart from a version of "The Shining Pyramid" for UK television in 1980, Machen's works have not been adapted for film or television. While it is probably true that the strange and disturbing atmosphere of many of his stories (like Lovecraft's) would not be easy to translate to the screen, it could be argued that many of his works would be prime material for visual realisation. Films with Machen influences or references include Pan's Labyrinth, Lemora, and John Carpenter's 1980 film The Fog (which features a character named "Mr. Machen", portrayed by veteran actor John Houseman). Pans Labyrinth (Spanish: El Laberinto del Fauno; literally The Labyrinth of the Faun) is an Academy Award-winning Spanish language fantasy film[2][3] written and directed by Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro. ... This article needs cleanup. ... For other persons named John Carpenter, see John Carpenter (disambiguation). ... The Fog is a 1980 horror movie directed by John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay and composed the music of the film. ... John Houseman (September 22, 1902 â€“ October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born actor and film producer. ...

In music, the composer John Ireland found Machen’s works to be a life-changing experience that directly influenced much of his composition. Mark E. Smith of The Fall also found Machen an inspiration. Likewise, Current 93 have drawn on the mystical and occult leanings of Machen, with songs such as "The Inmost Light", which shares its title with Machen's story. Some works on the Ghost Box Music label like Belbury Poly and We Are All Pan's People draw heavily on Machen. It is an interest also shared by film directors like Guillermo del Toro and Richard Stanley. Other notable figures with an enthusiasm for Machen have included Brocard Sewell, Barry Humphries, Stewart Lee and Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.^[10] John Nicholson Ireland (13 August 1879 â€“ 12 June 1962) was an English composer. ... Mark E. Smith (born 5 March 1957) is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and sole consistent member of The Fall, a renowned and idiosyncratic offshoot from the UK post-punk/new wave music scenes. ... This article is about the band. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Ghost Box Music is an English independent record label, established in 2004 by Julian House and Jim Jupp. ... The cover of The covers of Ghost Box releases are designed to be reminiscient to textbook covers, and to work together as a set. ... We Are All Pans People is an album by Julian House, under the pseudonym of The Focus Group. ... Guillermo del Toro GÃ³mez (born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara, Jalisco) is an Academy Award-nominated Mexican film director. ... Richard Stanley (born 22 November 1966) is a film director and screenwriter born in South Africa. ... Michael Seymour Sewell (1912 â€“ 2000), usually now known by his religious name Brocard Sewell, was a British Carmelite monk and literary figure. ... John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE (born 17 February 1934 in Camberwell, Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian comedian, satirist and character actor best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife, and Sir Les Patterson, Australias foul-mouthed cultural attachÃ© to Britain. ... Stewart Graham Lee (born April 5, 1968 in Shropshire, raised in Solihull) is an English stand-up comedian, writer and director probably best known for being one half of the 1990s comedy duo Lee and Herring, and for co-writing and directing the critically-acclaimed and controversial stage show Jerry... For the English boxer, see Rowan Anthony Williams. ...

An Arthur Machen Society was established in 1948 in the United States and survived until the 1960s. It was followed by the Arthur Machen Society based in the UK, in 1986, which in turn was replaced by the current literary society, The Friends of Arthur Machen. The Friends of Arthur Machen (FoAM) is a non-profit international literary society founded in 1998 dedicated to supporting interest in Arthur Machen and his work, and to aid research. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Bibliography

The Tartarus Press edition of Tales of Horror and the Supernatural collects most of the greatest of Machen’s short stories. Tartarus Press is a small, international award-winning, independent publishing house with two distinct specialities. ...

There is a substantial critical analysis of Machen's work in a chapter of S. T. Joshi's book The Weird Tale (1990). Sunanda Tryambak Joshi (b. ...

Selected works (in approximate order of composition, with date of publication)

The Great God Pan was a novella written by Arthur Machen. ... â€œThe Great War â€ redirects here. ... Combatants Kingdom of England Kingdom of France Commanders Henry V of England Charles dAlbret Strength About 6,000 (but see Modern re-assessment). ... Saint-George is a municipality with 695 inhabitants (as of 2003) in the district of Aubonne in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Holy Grail (disambiguation). ... The Green Round is a horror novel by author Arthur Machen. ...

External links

Categories: 1863 births | 1947 deaths | Golden Dawn | People from Monmouthshire | People from Newport | Welsh fantasy writers | Welsh horror writers | Welsh novelists | Anglo-Welsh novelists | Welsh actors | Welsh journalists | Welsh essayists | Welsh translators | Welsh literary critics | Welsh Anglicans | Welsh occultists | Decadent literature Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. ... Project Gutenberg of Australia is an organisation related to Project Gutenberg. ... is the 62nd day of the year (63rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... , Caerleon (Welsh: ) is a suburban village and community, situated on the River Usk in the northern outskirts of the city of Newport (of which it is also a electoral ward) in south-east Wales. ... For other uses, see Newport (disambiguation). ... Monmouthshire is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, covering south-east Wales. ... is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Encyclopedia > Arthur Machen

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