Blog-o-ween 2022: Algernon Blackwood

Today, let's focus on the old time radio work of a single author, Algernon Blackwood. Blackwood was born in a part of north-west Kent, England, called Shooter's Hill in 1869. Throughout his life, he developed one heck of a C.V.: dairy farmer in Canada, hotelier, newspaper reporter in New York City, bartender, model, private secretary, businessman, and violin teacher. It was when he returned to his native England in his late thirties that he began to write the stories of the supernatural that would make his name, including his two most well-known works, "The Willows" and "The Wendigo."

Old time radio on both sides of the pond took advantage of the wealth of material generated during his career.

One of the most famous radio series, Escape, began with either William Conrad or Paul Frees (two of radio's best ever voice actors) intoning:

"Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape!"

Why anyone would choose to escape into an Algernon Blackwood story is beyond me, but they did when Escape adapted "Ancient Sorceries" and "Confession." The former is a tale of the supernatural and witchcraft in a small Welsh town. The latter is the noir-esque story of a shell-shocked soldier walking the fog-filled streets of London and finding a dead body. The probelm is the soldier can't recall if he did or did not cause the woman's death.

Canada's CBC Mystery Theatre got in on the act, as well. In 1968, they broadcast an adaptation of one of Blackwood's most famous tales, "The Wendigo." In this story, a hunting party go out into the Canadian wilderness in search of moose, but instead they may have found an ancient legend in the flesh.

Finally, let's hear from the man himself. In 1948, the BBC broadcast Algernon Blackwood reading...Algernon Blackwood! The story is a quickie called "Pistol Against a Gun."

It is 10 October. There are 21 days until Halloween

I’ve mentioned before how seeing Day of the Triffids on TV one Saturday afternoon when I was a kid changed the way I felt about being in the woods. Every tree and every plant my size or taller became a potential meat-eating Triffid. Any clicking or tapping I heard weren’t squirrels or woodpeckers. No! They were Triffids signaling to each other that there was a yummy meal in sneakers and a Han Solo t-shirt coming their way.

Thank god I didn’t read Algernon Blackwood’s novella “The Willows” as a kid, too. I never would have left the house let alone gone back into the woods.

Blackwood’s tale of eco-horror is, like so many tales of terror from the early 20th century, a slow burn. Over four chapters, Blackwood slowly builds and layers the horrors to a frightening climax as the two men trapped on that sandy island on the River Danube realize what may be in the woods. Blackwood, however, never fully divulges the identity of the entities that are stalking the men. What are they doing? What do they want? What are they even? Blackwood reveals nothing that would help explain away the horror in the willows.

The deeply mysterious nature of things outside human understanding – are they gods or monsters, and is there a difference between the two? – is one of the reasons H.P. Lovecraft considered “The Willows” his favorite story of cosmic horror:

"Here art and restraint in narrative reach their very highest development, and an impression of lasting poignancy is produced without a single strained passage or a single false note.”

Blackwood’s tale seems ripe for a motion picture production. The ambiguity and slow-burn creeping dread seem perfect for a movie in the vein of The VVitch or The Lighthouse.

You can find the story in its entirety here. Surprisingly, as well as disappointingly, there doesn’t seem to be an old-time radio program that took on the tale, but, as always, the good folks at HorrorBabble have recorded an excellent audio version.