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Arthur Machen was a hugely prolific essayist and journalist. In a career that spanned more than half a century, he wrote thousands of articles for such magazines and newspapers as the London Evening News, John O'London's Weekly, and the Independent. In these essays he articulates his distinctive mystical and religiously based outlook. Accusing science and rationalism of impoverishing the human imagination, he was an untiring defender of the essential mystery of the cosmos. In his literary criticism-embodied in the treatise Hieroglyphics (1902) and in many separate essays-Machen made a frequent…mehr

Produktbeschreibung
Arthur Machen was a hugely prolific essayist and journalist. In a career that spanned more than half a century, he wrote thousands of articles for such magazines and newspapers as the London Evening News, John O'London's Weekly, and the Independent. In these essays he articulates his distinctive mystical and religiously based outlook. Accusing science and rationalism of impoverishing the human imagination, he was an untiring defender of the essential mystery of the cosmos. In his literary criticism-embodied in the treatise Hieroglyphics (1902) and in many separate essays-Machen made a frequent discussion between mere "reading matter" and genuine literature. The former comprised mundane realism; the latter the world of romance, fantasy, and the supernatural. While being skeptical of spiritualist phenomena, he found in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood, Walter de la Mare, and other writers a vital expression of the wonders and terrors that humanity encounters even in everyday life. This volume presents a robust selection of Machen's essays, detailing his philosophical and literary vision. It is a significant adjunct to his weird fiction, showing how the principles he outlined in his essays were applied to the supernatural tales he wrote over his lifetime. The volume has been edited by S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on Machen and the editor of Machen's colleced fiction as published by Hippocampus Press.
Autorenporträt
Arthur Machen, baptized Arthur Llewellyn Jones-Machen, was a Welsh writer in the 19th and 20th centuries. He received a classical education as a boy; however, he couldn't afford to attend university, so he lived a life of relative poverty as he attempted to work in several professions before finding literary success.In 1897, Machen married his first wife, Amelia Hogg, who introduced him to A. E. White, who became close friends with Machen and helped him break into literary circles. Soon after, Machen also began receiving legacies from distant relatives, which allowed him to devote more time to writing.While he wrote fiction and nonfiction, Machen is best known for his supernatural and horror stories, which were inspired by Celtic, Roman, and medieval history as well as his own childhood in Wales. His books were popular, though his success fell after some unfortunate events-including a scandal from Oscar Wilde that hurt the reputation of the genres Machen wrote and the death of his first wife, and he was eventually forced to take on a full-time journalist position to provide for his family. This trend of success followed by poverty repeated throughout the years until an appeal was launched, naming Machen as a distinguished man of letters, which allowed him to finally live in some amount of comfort until his death in 1947.