William Hope Hodgson
William Hope Hodgson was an English writer and seaman, born on November 15, 1877, in Blackmore End, Essex. As the son of an Anglican clergyman, he initially pursued a maritime career, becoming a merchant seaman and gaining recognition for his bravery at sea. Hodgson developed a profound interest in body-building, photography, and writing, ultimately abandoning his career at sea to focus on literature. His works span three main genres: supernatural maritime fiction, visionary horror, and supernatural detective stories, with notable titles including *The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"*, *The House on the Borderland*, and *Carnacki, the Ghost Finder*.
Hodgson's writing gained greater recognition posthumously, particularly in the United States, influencing later genre writers such as H.P. Lovecraft. His unique ability to evoke atmosphere and his early use of settings like the Sargasso Sea contributed to his reputation as a visionary in horror literature. Although sometimes criticized for his complex style, which can be challenging for readers, Hodgson's work remains significant for its original concepts and disturbing imagery. He served in World War I, where he was killed in action on April 17, 1918.
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William Hope Hodgson
Writer
- Born: November 15, 1877
- Birthplace: Blackmore End, Essex, England
- Died: April 17, 1918
- Place of death: Ypres, Belgium
Biography
William Hope Hodgson was born in Blackmore End, Essex, England, on November 15, 1877, one of twelve children of Samuel Hodgson, an Anglican clergyman, and Lissie Sarah (Brown) Hodgson. Lying about his age, Hodgson ran away to the sea at the age of thirteen; after being sent back home, he returned to the sea legally and became a merchant seaman’s apprentice from 1891 to 1895, when he attended a technical school in Liverpool. He returned to sea as a merchant seaman third mate, and was awarded a Royal Humane Society Medal in 1898 for rescuing a fellow sailor. While at sea, he became interested in body-building as a means of self-defense, as well as in photography.
His initial love for the sea turned into a simultaneous dislike, both for the harsh and unfair life for most of those who work upon it, and for the sea as an entity—almost a metaphysical aversion, which would emerge in much of his maritime fiction. From 1899 to 1901 he ran W. H. Hodgson’s School of Physical Culture in Blackburn, Lancashire, a sort of Victorian health club, which he abandoned several years later for a life as a writer and lecturer; his lectures on the sea were often illustrated with photography he had taken.
During his life, his fiction generally was favorably reviewed but did not sell well. His works can be broadly separated into three areas: supernatural fiction centering on the sea, such as The Boats of the “Glen Carrig” and The Ghost Pirates; visionary horror, such as The House on the Borderland and The Night Land; and supernatural detective stories in Carnacki, the Ghost Finder. In 1913, he married Betty Farnworth, a writer and editor at Harmsworth magazines.
At the beginning of World War I, Hodgson volunteered for the Royal Field Artillery; he was killed near Ypres, Belgium, on April 17, 1918. Hodgson’s reputation as a horror writer grew after his death, particularly on the other side of the Atlantic. H. C. Koenig, a fan of supernatural fiction, trumpeted the virtues of Hodgson’s works, and soon writers like H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, critics like Sam Moskowitz, and publishers like August Derleth were following suit.
Hodgson has proven to be an influential writer, particularly in his depiction of atmosphere. Although he did not use the term, he was the first writer to use the Bermuda Triangle as a setting of dread in his depiction of the Sargasso Sea. His visions of a far-future Earth in the last stages of entropy in The House on the Borderland and The Night Land, inspired by H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine, in turn inspired authors such as Jack Vance in his Dying Earth stories. Hodgson’s style, while at times his greatest strength, can also be his greatest weakness. His replication of a seventeenth century style in The Night Land has made it one of the great unread masterpieces of fantastic literature. Nevertheless, despite Hodgson’s predilection for allegory and romance, he remains a uniquely original visionary, capable of creating genuinely disturbing scenes and images.