Blackwood, Algernon (Henry) (1869–1951)

English novelist. He was greatly interested in the occult and has been called ‘the ghost man’ because of his subjects. His novels include John Silence (1908), The Human Chord (1910), and The Wave (1916). Tongues of Fire (1924) and Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural (1949) are volumes of short stories.

Blackwood was born in Kent and educated at Edinburgh. At the age of 20 he went to Canada and worked at a great variety of jobs; in Episodes before Thirty (1923) he tells of his early roving life.