Arthur Machen selected writings, 1910-1943 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Arthur Llewelyn Jones Machen was born on March 3, 1863 to Janet Robina Machen (1826-1885) and Reverend John Edward Jones (1831-1887) in Caerleon, Monmouthshire, Wales. In 1881, Machen moved to London to pursue journalism and worked variously as a tutor, publishers’ clerk, and a cataloger of occult books. The same year, he celebrated his first published book, Eleusinia, which consisted of a mystical poem in seven parts.

In 1887, Machen married Amelia Hogg (d. 1899) of Worthing, Sussex. In 1894, he published his most well-known work, The Great God Pan, a horror and fantasy novella. Following the death of his first wife, Machen briefly became involved with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an occult society founded in London. He began to tour as an actor with the Benson Company in 1901, using his time between performances to write.

In 1903, Machen married Dorothie Purefoy Hudleston (1878-1947), a fellow actor. The couple shared two children, Hilary (1912-1987) and Janet (1917-2008). From 1910-1921, Machen worked as a reporter for the London Evening News, in which he published many additional stories, including The Bowmen (1914). In the 1920s, he gained a modest literary following in the United States, garnering praise from authors such as Vincent Starrett (1886-1974) and Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964).

At the end of the 1920s, Machen and his family moved to Amersham, Buckinghamshire, where he continued to write essays, reviews, stories, and letters. He died in St Joseph’s Nursing Home in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, on December 15, 1947, and is buried in the municipal cemetery at Amersham.

In the years since his death, Machen has been praised by many acclaimed writers, including H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), John Betjeman (1906-1984), and Stephen King (1947-). He is considered by many to be an forerunner in the genre of supernatural horror. To honor his life and work, the Arthur Machen Society was established in the United States in 1948, which was taken over by his British admirers in 1986 (now known as The Friends of Arthur Machen).

Source

Dobson, Roger. "Machen, Arthur Llewelyn Jones (1863–1947), writer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 Sep. 2004; Accessed 10 Dec. 2024. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-37711.