James, M(ontague) R(hodes)

(British, 1862–1936)

Born at Goodnestone, Kent, M. R. James was educated at King's College, Cambridge. He became Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, then Provost of Eton College in 1918. Widely acknowledged as the master of the English ghost story, his concise tales are expertly crafted and imaginatively unsettling. Begin with his first collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), which, like much of his writing, is strongly coloured by his specialized knowledge of folklore and superstition. The gradual revelation of malign supernatural presences in his stories gains in effectiveness through his donnish restraint of tone and the fundamental ordinariness of his settings. Other collections include A Thin Ghost and Other Stories (1919), The Five Jars (1922), and A Warning to the Curious (1925). His Collected Ghost Stories appeared in 1931.

J. Sheridan Le Fanu, H. P. Lovecraft  DH