Machen, Arthur

Machen, Arthur măkˈən [key], 1863–1947, British author, b. Wales. He wrote a series of semiautobiographical fantasies, notably The Hill of Dreams (1907) and Far Off Things (1922), and tales of horror and the supernatural. Machen achieved transient fame during World War I with “The Bowman,” a tale relating how St. George and his ghostly archers rescue the British army and slaughter the Germans.

See his autobiography, ed. by M. Bishop (1951); biography by W. D. Sweetser (1964).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: English Literature, 20th cent. to the Present: Biographies