The Face of the Earth & Other Imaginings

Those who are acquainted with Blackwood's work will know that he did not write simple ghost stories. From his childhood Blackwood had a love for the natural world and for much of his life, whenever he could, he would escape the city and the town and take himself into the remotest corners of the world, there to commune not simply with Nature, but with the very Spirit of the Earth.

Blackwood firmly believed that the human race had become too civilized, its senses and its soul dulled by the modern world, with all its conveniences and technological progress. It was only by returning to Nature that our senses would be reawakened and become more aware of the full scale of the world about us.

The stories and essays included in this book are the products of his most imaginative years. And so this collection came together, a blend of eighteen short stories, most of them previously uncollected, and twelve essays, none of which has been reprinted--the whole seeking to show the range of Blackwood's early work and the source of his inspiration: just what it was that made his imagination awake.

--from "Introduction: Imagination Inspired" by Mike Ashley