William Hope Hodgson (November 15, 1877 - April 19, 1918) was an English writer. He produces many works, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, covering several overlapping genres including horror, fiction, and science fiction. Hodgson uses his experience at sea to lend authentic details to his short horror stories, many of them in the ocean, including his series of related stories forming the "Sargasso Sea Story". His novels, such as The House on the Borders (1908) and The Night Land (1912), feature more cosmic themes, but some of his novels also focus on the related horrors. with the sea. Early in his writing career, Hodgson dedicated his efforts to poetry, though some of his poems were published during his lifetime. He also drew some notices as a photographer and earned fame as a bodybuilder. He died in World War I at the age of 40.
Video William Hope Hodgson
Life
Early years and life in the ocean
Hodgson was born in Blackmore End, Essex, son of Rev. Samuel Hodgson, an Anglican priest, and Lissie Sarah Brown. She is the second of 12 children, three of whom died in infancy. The death of a child is a theme in several works of Hodgson including the short story "The Valley of the Prodigal Son", "Sea Horses", and "The End Home Finder".
Hodgson's father was often moved and served 11 different parishes in 21 years, including one in County Galway, Ireland. This arrangement was later featured in Hodgson's novel The House on the Borderland.
Hodgson escaped from boarding school at the age of 13, in an attempt to become a sailor. He was arrested and returned to his family, but eventually received his father's permission to apprentice as a boys cabin and began a four-year apprenticeship in 1891. Hodgson's father died shortly afterwards, throat cancer, leaving a poor family; when William was away, his family relied heavily on charity. After the apprentice ended in 1895, Hodgson started two years studying in Liverpool and then was able to pass the test and receive his partner's certificate; He then began a few more years as a sailor.
At sea, Hodgson was intimidated. This made him start a personal training program. According to Sam Moskowitz,
The main motivation of body development is not health, but self-defense. Its relatively short and sensitive height, its almost beautiful face makes it an irresistible target for intimidating sailors. When they move to destroy it, they will learn too late that they come to easily overcome one of the most powerful, pound for pounds, across the UK.
The theme of bullying an apprentice by an older sailor, and revenge is taken, often appearing in the sea story.
While deep in the ocean, in addition to his training with weights and with punching sacks, Hodgson also practiced his photography, taking photographs of aurora borealis, cyclones, lightning, sharks and maggots that filled the food given to the sailors. He also built stamp collections, trained his shooting skills while hunting, and kept a journal of his experiences at sea. In November 1898, he was awarded the Royal Humane Society medal for heroism for saving another sailor who, in March of the same year, had fallen from the topmast to the sea in shark-infested waters off New Zealand.
Physical culture, essays and poems
In 1899, at the age of 22, he opened the School of Physical Culture at Ainsworth Street, Blackburn, England, as "the inventor and lecturer of a system that will cure indigestion". Schools offer special training programs for personal training. Among its customers are members of the Blackburn police force. In 1902, Hodgson himself appeared on stage with handcuffs and other binding devices provided by the Blackburn police department and imposed restrictions on Harry Houdini, who had previously escaped from Blackburn prison. His behavior towards Houdini generated controversy; The runaway painter had difficulty removing her restraints, complaining that Hodgson had deliberately injured her and locked her cuff locks.
Hodgson is not ashamed of publicity, and in another famous action, riding a bike on a very steep road so it has stairs, events written in local newspapers. Despite his reputation, he finally found that he could not earn a living by running his personal training business, which was seasonal, and closed it. He began writing articles such as "Physical Culture versus Recreation Exercise" (published in 1903). One of these articles, "Health from Scientific Exercise", features photos of Hodgson demonstrating his practice. The market for such items seems limited, however; so, inspired by writers like Edgar Allan Poe, HG Wells, Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle, Hodgson turned his attention to fiction, published his first short story, "The Goddess of Death", in 1904, followed immediately by "A Tropical Horror" (1905). He also contributed to an article in The Grand Magazine, taking the "No" side in the debate on the topic "Is Mercantile Navy Worth Joining?" In this article, Hodgson explains in detail his negative experiences at sea, including facts and figures on salary. This led to a second article in The Nautical Magazine , an exposÃÆ'Â © on apprenticeship issues; at that time, families were often forced to pay for boys to be accepted as apprentices. Hodgson began giving paid lectures, illustrated with photography in the form of colored slides, about his experiences at sea.
Although he wrote a number of poems, only a handful were published during his lifetime; some, such as "Madre Mia" (1907), appear as dedication to his novels. Apparently cynical about the prospect of publishing his poetry, in 1906 he published an article in The Author's magazine, pointing out that the poet could earn money by writing inscriptions for tombstones. Many of his poems were published by his widow in two posthumous collections, but about 48 poems were not published until their appearance in the Lost Poetry of William Hope Hodgson (2005).
Career in fiction, and marriage
Hodgson's first short story was "The Goddess of Death" (1904), where he used the Flora statue that stood in Park Corporation, Blackburn, as the focus of a story in which a Hindu statue, seized from an Indian temple, stood. in a small English town. The statue comes alive to take revenge on those who stole it. The Royal Magazine published the story in April 1904.
In 1906, the American magazine The Monthly Story Magazine published "From the Tideless Sea", the first Sargasso Hodgson Sea story. Hodgson continued to sell stories to American magazines as well as British magazines for the rest of his career, carefully managing the rights to his work to maximize his wages.
While he still lives with his mother in relative poverty, his first published novel, The Boats of the "Glen Carrig", appeared in 1907, becoming a positive review. Hodgson also published "The Voice in the Night" that same year, as well as "Through the Vortex of a Cyclone", a realistic tale inspired by the Hodgson experience at sea and illustrated with colored slides made from his own photographs; Hodgson previously used these slides to illustrate the "lantern lecture" entitled "Through the Heart of Cyclone", which he had given at Trinity Wesleyan School on Montague Street, Blackburn, on November 16, 1906. Hodgson also explored the subject of ships and cyclones in his story " The Shamraken Homeward-Bounder "(1908). Also in 1908, Hodgson published his second novel, The House on the Borderland , again for positive reviews, as well as the unusual satire fiction, "Date 1965: Modern Warfare", Swiftian satyr on suggested that war should be carried out by men who fought in cages with knives, and corpses carefully cultivated for food, though in a letter to the editors published at the time, Hodgson revealed strong patriotic sentiments.
In 1909, he published "Out of the Storm", a short horror story about "the side of sea death", in which the protagonist sank in a storm raving about the horror of a storm at sea. According to Moskowitz,
"This story proves an emotional proof beyond any other evidence.Hodgson, whose success in the field of literature will be a great measure based on the impression he received at sea, is actually hating and fearful of the water with the intensity of his passion."
Also in 1909, Hodgson published another novel, The Ghost Pirates . In his preface, he wrote it
"... resolving what, perhaps, can be called a trilogy, because, although very different in scope, each of the three books deals with a certain conception that has elemental kinship.With this book, the author believes that he closed the door, himself, at a certain phase of constructive thinking. "
The Bookman magazine in his review of the novel in 1909 covered with comments:
"We can only hope Mr. Hodgson can be encouraged to reconsider his decision, because we do not know anything like the work of previous writers in the literature of the present."
Despite the critical success of his novels, Hodgson remains relatively poor. To try to increase his income from short story sales, he began working on the first of his recurring characters, Thomas Carnacki, featured in some of his most famous stories and partly inspired by Algernon Blackwood's invisible detective John Silence. The first, "The Gateway of the Monster", is published in The Idler (1910). In 1910, Hodgson also published "The Captain of the Onion Boat", an unusual story that combines maritime and romance. He continues to publish many stories and non-fiction pieces, sometimes using the use of plot elements and situations that are recycled, sometimes due to his publisher's annoyance.
His last novel to see the publication, The Night Land, was published in 1912, although it may have had its origins a few years earlier. Hodgson also worked on a novel version of the 10,000 word novel, now known as The Dream of X (1912). He continues to branched into related genres, publishing "Judge Barclay's Wife", Western adventures, in the United States, as well as some non-supernatural mystery stories and science fiction stories "The Derelict" (1912), and even story wars (some Captain Gault featuring a war theme).
In 1912, Hodgson married Betty Farnworth, also known as Bessie, a girl from Cheadle Hulme and a staff member who wrote the "misery" column for the women's magazine Home Notes. Both are 35 years old. He gave up his job after they married on February 26, 1913, in London, in Kensington. They moved to the south of France and lived there, partly because of the low cost of living. Hodgson embarked on a work entitled "Captain Dang (A story about certain odd and rather memorable adventures)" and continues to publish stories in various genres, though financial security continues to avoid them. When war broke out in Europe, the Hodgson family returned to England.
Next life, World War I, experience and death
Hodgson joins the London University Officers Training Corps. Refusing to have anything to do with the sea despite his experience and Third Mate certificate, he received a commission as a lieutenant at Royal Artillery. In 1916, he was thrown from a horse and suffered a broken jaw and a serious head injury; he received a mandatory warrant, and re-wrote.
Refusing to stay on the sidelines, Hodgson recovered enough to re-register. His articles and stories published from time reflect his experience in the war. He was killed by the direct impact of artillery shells at the Fourth Battle of Ypres in April 1918; sources suggest either the 17th or the 19th. He was praised in The Times on May 2, 1918. The American Magazine Adventure , which Hodgson has contributed to fiction, also ran a clip-reprinted obituary of his widow, illustrating how Hodgson led a group of NCO to a safe place under great fire.
Maps William Hope Hodgson
Most famous works
Hodgson is best known for two works. The House on the Borderland (1908) is a novel written by H. P. Lovecraft "but for some touch of ordinary sentimentality it will be a classic of the first water." The Night Land (1912) is a much longer novel, written in an ancient style and expressed a bleak vision of a world away without the sun. These works both contain elements of science fiction, though they also take part in horror and occultism. According to a critical consensus, in these works, regardless of the often awkward language, Hodgson attains a deep expressionary force that focuses on the sense of not only terror but also everywhere the potential of terror, the thinness of the boundaries invisible between the world of normality and the underlying and unaccountable reality that humans do not fit.
The Ghost Pirates (1909) had less reputation than The House on the Borderland , but it was an effective cruise horror story of a ship that was attacked and eventually dragged to its destruction. by supernatural beings. This book is meant to be the oral testimony of the only survivors, and this style lacks the pseudo-archaism that made The Boat of the "Glen Carrig" (1907) and The Night Land I read boring to many people.
Hodgson is also known for his short stories featuring recurring characters: "occult detective" Thomas Carnacki, and Captain Gault's smuggler. The story of Carnacki "The Whistling Room" has been reprinted in various anthologies, including a collection introduced by Alfred Hitchcock. One of Hodgson's most famous short stories is probably "The Voice in the Night" (1907), which has been adapted for the movie twice. Another story that critics consider very important is "The Shamraken Homeward-Bounder".
Hodgson's work is said to have an influence on HGP. Lovecraft, though Lovecraft did not read his works until 1934. In the 2009 essay, China Mià © à © ville traced the origins of the "tentacles" as a horror object to Hodgson's The Boat of the "Glen Carrig" , but the motive has been used by MR James in "Count Magnus", which Lovecraft first read shortly before using the motive.
Literary influences
After his death, Hodgson's work was forgotten. However, in the 1930s, Hodgson's supernatural fiction was voiced at Colin de la Mare's
Hodgson's work is very inspiring for many science fiction writers and fantasy. In England, both Olaf Stapledon and Dennis Wheatley are influenced by Hodgson's work. Across the Atlantic, Clark Ashton Smith and Henry S. Whitehead were also influenced by Hodgson's writings. Modern writers who cite Hodgson as influences include Iain Sinclair, Gene Wolfe, Greg Bear, China Mià © à © ville, Simon Clark, Elizabeth Massie, Tim Lebbon, and Brian Keene.
Hodgson's literary treasures
Hodgson's widow, Bessie, works to keep her books in print and publishes her unpublished works during her lifetime, including two books of poetry. After Bessie Hodgson died in 1943, sister Hodgson, Lissie took over her literary land.
While the first six Carnackian stories were collected during Hodgson's lifetime, "The Haunted Jarvee" appeared posthumously in 1929, and two more Carnacki stories, "The Find" and "The Hog," were published in 1947 by August Derleth. Some critics suspect that Derleth may actually be the author of these two stories, but the theory has been ignored.
One of the stories of Captain Gault, "The Plan of the Reefing Bi-Plane", was not published until 1996, when it was included in the collection of the short stories of Terrors of the Sea .
Some of Hodgson's poems were first published in 2005, when they appeared in Lost Poems from William Hope Hodgson .
A number of other Hodgson works are reprinted for the first time since their original publication in five volumes of Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson published by Night Shade Books.
Copyright protection has now ended in most of Hodgson's work, with the exception of several published posthumous works, including many poems.
Novel
- "Glen Carrig" boats (1907)
- Houses in Borderland (1908)
- The Ghost Pirates (1909)
- The Night Land (1912)
- Dream X (1912) (a summary of 20,000 words from the novel 200,000 words The Night Land )
- The House on the Borderland and Other Novels (1946) (posthumous collection of the four Hodgson big novels)
- Capt Capt (pending)
Writing order versus publication order
Sam Gafford, in his essay "Writing Backward: William Hope Hodgson's novels" states that four great Hodgson novels may have been published in reverse order of their writing. If this is true, then The Night Land is Hodgson's first novel, where he devotes his imagination to the most uncontrollable, and not the last. Gafford writes:
"Concerns over the composition of this novel may seem insignificant until we consider the implications for Hodgson's work as a whole... in essence, Hodgson shifts away from the fictional science-fiction scenario of TNL (which contains some startling initial conceptions ) and towards BoGC the more basic of adventures. "
If we accept Gafford's thesis, then Hodgson actually wrote the last of the "Boat of" Glen Carrig, and the benefits of stylistic modernization to the point where Hodgson's most accessible novel:
"When he finished the group with BoGC , Hodgson had managed to get rid of himself from the influence of this style and produced a book written in a flat but useable tone.With each book, Hodgson learned better language control and writing more intelligently and finally starting to develop his own voice. "
But despite the overly ancient style of prose, which makes them less approachable, it is actually Hodgson's earlier works considered today's masterpieces. And as Gafford says:
"... we can only wonder what imaginative extraordinary advantages such as The Night Land may have been lost because the public does not appreciate."
Short story
Various stories
(First publication details are provided)
- "Ud Island". Red Magazine , 1912
- "The Headland's Adventures". Red Magazine , 1912
Captain Gault Story
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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