Algernon Blackwood
ECOGOTHIC Ghost Story Writer
Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre.
Blackwood’s life was a life of drifting, wandering, and seeking, with two abiding interests that run through his varied occupations and travels: his affinity for nature and life-long interest in the occult, the paranormal, and alternative spiritualities. He was a member of the Ghost Club as well as a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.1
Blackwood blurs the distinctions between the human world and a wider natural and spiritual ecology. In his stories human beings are constantly shown as being at the mercy of larger forces of nature.2
ECOGOTHIC and Anthropocene
The Anthropocene is an ecosocially interwoven narrative of change, chaos and interconnectedness. Up until well into the twentieth century, ecological theories favored a portrait of nature that was fundamentally temperate, balanced and nurturing; its changes gradual and purposeful. The mainstream ecology of today critiques this classic ‘balance paradigm’ as misleading, reductive and intoxicated with rationalism seeking to blueprint immensely diverse and complex natural systems. Within the past half century, ecological science has departed from these traditional frameworks, turning instead towards a new chaotic model of change in nature, one that navigates between perfect order and random disturbance.3
The ecogothic is a mode of critical inquiry that takes ‘a nonanthropocentric position to reconsider the role that environment, species, and nonhumans play in the construction of monstrosity and fear’ first conceptualised in Hillard’s essay ‘Deep into That Darkness Peering’ (2009).4
Algernon Blackwood used nature’s power of expanding one’s consciousness to generate horror stories. In them, natural entities removed from the experience of humanity by their evolutionary histories horrify and threaten because any attempt to interact with them or understand them invokes the vast distance between the two forms of life, expanding the characters’ consciousness until they are no longer human. 5
There is a kind of euphoria, a kind of rapture, in the visions which conclude many of Blackwood's stories, when the curtain inside the mind is torn back and we find ourselves exposed to forces vaster than we can comprehend, often involving the opening of the inner eye, forces which enjoin the reader to feel an immensity of pity for the suffering protagonist.6
The Wendigo and More
The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood was first published in The Lost Valley and Other Stories (1910). It is a chilling ghost story about five men lost in the Canadian wilderness. While separated into two hunting parties a terror befalls one pair of the hunters. An ancient evil of the primeval woods pays a visit on them—The Wendigo.7
The Wendigo is a mythological creature or evil spirit originating from the folklore of Plains and Great Lakes Natives.It is often said to be a malevolent spirit, sometimes depicted as a creature with human-like characteristics, which possesses human beings. The wendigo is said to invoke feelings of insatiable greed/hunger, the desire to cannibalize other humans, and the propensity to commit murder in those that fall under its influence.8
You can read The Wendigo online at The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Wendigo, by Algernon Blackwood or listen to it at the link below.
A bibliography of Algernon Blackwood’s writing with links is at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database here: Summary Bibliography: Algernon Blackwood (isfdb.org)
LEGENDS OF THE NATIONAL PARKS
The image of the Wendigo at the top of this essay is posted with permission of the Anderson Design Group.9
Thacker, Eugene (2021). How Algernon Blackwood Turned Nature Into Sublime Horror. Literary Hub, March 8, 2021; McCook, Kathleen. Golden Dawn. Substack, August 20, 2021.
Smith, Andrew, and William Hughes. “EcoGothic.” EcoGothic. Ed. Andrew Smith and William Hughes. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2015.
Poland, Michelle. “Walking with the Goat-God: Gothic Ecology in Algernon Blackwood’s Pan’s Garden: A Volume of Nature Stories.” Critical survey (Oxford, England) 29.1 (2017): 53–69.
Tom J. Hillard, ‘Deep into That Darkness Peering’, in ISLE 16, no.4 (2009) as cited in Poland.
Conley, Greg. 2013. “The Uncrossable Evolutionary Gulfs of Algernon Blackwood.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 24 (3): 426–45.
David Punter; Pity: Reflections on Algernon Blackwood's Gothic. English Language Notes 1 March 2010; 48 (1): 129–138.
Manguel, Alberto. “The Wendigo.” Fabulous Monsters. United States: Yale University Press, 2019. 183–186.
Brightman, Robert A. (1988). "The Wendigo in the Material World" (PDF). Ethnohistory. 35 (4): 337–379.
Legends of the National Parks. The artists of Anderson Design Group have spent years documenting the wilderness and wonder of America's National Parks. We've explored, rendered posters, written books, and photographed the nation's most cherished public lands. During our research and adventures in the parks, we've also run across some pretty exciting legends. We've heard horror stories about strange creatures that others have seen, heard, (or felt). We've uncovered tall tales of unexplainable events, ancient myths, and local stories passed down by Indigenous Peoples, colonial settlers, and park visitors. Many of the legends we've come across are based on Native American folklore, and to the best of our abilities, we’ve indicated which tribes were associated with each story, being careful to respect the sacred traditions of Indigenous beliefs. The Wendigo-Legends Of The National Parks The Wendigo | Anderson Design Group (andersondesigngroupstore.com)
Listening The Willows now
A good find...once again.
His last name sums up the genre.