Called by August Derleth "the last major representative of a ghost story tradition that began with Sheridan Le Fanu and reached its peak with Montague Rhodes James", Herbert Russell Wakefield (May, 9 1888 – August 2, 1964) was one of the great masters of the classic ghost story.
As a young man, Wakefield received his education at Marlborough College and University College, Oxford. As a member of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, he fought in both France and the Balkans during the First World War.
Several years after the war he was the chief editor at William Collins, Sons and Co. where he used his experiences in the publishing milieu for the some of the weird fiction he became fascinated with.
Influenced primarily by M.R. James and Algernon Blackwood, Wakefield believed in ghosts and unexplained phenomena and used true events as the inspiration for a number of his stories. In his introduction below to the Bantam paperback, "Stories from the Clock Strikes 12", he wrote: "I am convinced that there are perfectly authenticated cases of the most versatile psychic phenomena, for the very good reason that I have experienced them myself."
Wakefield did not limit himself solely to writing ghost stories; he also had an interest in criminology and wrote two non-fiction books and three novels on the subject.
In 1946, August Derleth published a collection of Wakefield's ghost stories under the Arkham House imprint. It is reported that not long before his death, Wakefield's wife posted a letter to Derleth explaining that her husband had destroyed all his correspondence, manuscripts and photos of himself.
It is interesting to note that decades later, in 1978, John Murray published "The Best Ghost Stories of H. Russell Wakefield", edited by Richard Dalby, which included some previously uncollected tales. In addition, Ash Tree Press published a book in 2000 titled, "Reunion at Dawn and Other Uncollected Ghost Stories", also containing a number of Wakefield's previously unpublished stories.
H.R. Wakefield's short story collections:
- They Return at Evening (1928)
- Old Man's Beard: Fifteen Disturbing Tales (1929)
- Imagine a Man in a Box (1931)
- Ghost Stories (1932)
- A Ghostly Company (1935)
- The Clock Strikes Twelve: Tales of the Supernatural (1940)
- Strayers from Sheol (1961)
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| Selections from "The Clock Strikes 12 (Arkham House). Cover by Richard Powers. |
"Why I Write Ghost Stories" (1946):
"Used Car", first published in "Ghost Stories" (1932):
