British author (1863-1947). Real name:
Arthur Llewelyn Jones. Born in
Caerleon-on-Usk in
South Wales, he was the son of an
Anglican priest. He adopted his mother's
maiden name while he was still in grade school and grew up fascinated by the various
Roman ruins scattered about the countryside. His father could not afford to send him to a
university, so Arthur moved to
London, where he worked for a while as a
journalist, a
clerk, and a
tutor.
His father died in 1887 and left him enough
money to allow him a certain degree of
financial independence for about 15 years. During this time, Machen produced his best known works, including the standard translation of
Casanova's
memoirs and a group of
supernatural stories -- particularly "
The Great God Pan" and "
The White People" -- that won him lasting
fame. However, at the time they were
published, Machen's stories were often
denounced as the works of a
diseased imagination.
In 1887, Machen married a woman named
Ameila Hogg. It is believed that he was extremely
close to her, although he doesn't mention her in his
autobiographies and no
pictures of her are known to exist. When she died of
cancer in 1899, he was shattered -- he stopped
writing and became fascinated by the
occult, joining the legendary
Golden Dawn in 1900.
Machen's
inheritance was exhausted by 1901, forcing him to seek
employment. He worked as a
bit player in
Frank Benson's
Repertory Company until 1909 and was reported to be extremely
happy in the
theatre, though he was probably not a very good
actor. In 1903, he married a woman named
Dorothy Purefoy Hudleston -- they had a
son, Hilary, in 1912 and a
daughter, Janet, in 1917.
After leaving the Repertory Company, he worked as a
reporter for the
London Evening News. He didn't enjoy
reporting as much as he had
acting, but he got to cover a number of
interesting and
important events, including the
funeral of
polar explorer Captain
Robert Falcon Scott in 1913. He began writing stories again. One of them, "
The Angels of Mons," was a completely
fictitious account of
heavenly archers assisting the British
soldiers at the
Battle of Mons -- despite Machen's repeated insistence that the
story was
fiction, many people believed it, and there are still people today who insist that it is
true.
Machen became
popular with
American readers in the
1920s, when his books were released overseas. About this time, he lost his job with the Evening News after writing an
obituary for
Lord Alfred Douglas, his former
editor, who Machen described as "
degenerate" -- Douglas was, however, still
alive and not
amused. Machen did not seem to mind being
unemployed, since his
literary reputation was good, the American editions of his books were bringing in some
dough, and he could finally spend more time
relaxing and
entertaining friends at home.
Unfortunately, his American
popularity didn't last forever, and Machen's
money started to dry up. He and his family moved to
Amersham,
Buckinghamshire in 1929, where he lived for the rest of his
life, writing a few stories and receiving
charity gifts from local authorities and
fans of his work.
Machen is not read as much today, but his work remains
important because he was one of the primary
influences over the future work of
science fiction/
horror author
H.P. Lovecraft and, hence, all of the myriad contributors to the
Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft borrowed names,
concepts, and
techniques from Machen's works, particularly "
The Great God Pan," which reads like a
preview of Lovecraft's "
The Dunwich Horror," and "
The White People," a
strange,
dreamlike tale told by a young girl who delves way too deep into
madness,
sorcery, and
evil.