F. Marion Crawford
Today, August 2, marks the birth of Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909). Although he wrote only a handful of short stories dealing with the supernatural and horror, he is still considered one of the best writers of ghost stories. If he had only written “The Upper Berth”, is place in the literature of the fantastic would be assured. The story was highly regarded by none other than H. P. Lovecraft, M. R. James, and H. Russell Wakefield. Highly regarded.
I’m going to look at one of my personal favorites, “For the Blood is the Life”.
Crawford uses the familiar technique of a tale within a tale. The story opens with an unnamed narrator (presumably Crawford) and an artist friend having dinner and enjoying a smoke on the roof a tower the narrator owns. It’s summer, and they are on the roof to escape the heat.
The artist is looking out over the land, and he sees a mound with what appears to be something on it. When the artist says the mound looks like a grave, the narrator confirms it is. He decides to go down and have a closer look at what’s on it.
He does, and the narrator explains what’s happening by comparing what the artist is experiencing based on his prior investigation of the mound. Shortly before the friend gets there, the object on it disappears. To the narrator, still watching from the roof, the object never disappears but rises and kneels. It’s clearly a woman, even though the artist never sees anything. The woman wraps her arms around the artist’s thighs and tries to keep him from leaving but is not successful.
When the artist returns to the roof, the narrator tells him the story of the mound. It’s a dark tale of murder, tragedy, and vampirism.
“For the Blood is the Life” is one of the best known and most often reprinted vampire stories from the early 20th Century. It is currently available in a variety of electronic and print editions. If you’ve not read it, and if you like creepy vampire stories, check it out.
I’ve only read “The Upper Berth” by Crawford. I haven’t read this. Crawford was apparently better known in his time for his romantic novels about Italy.
You’re right about his other works. Crawford supported himself as a writer. It seems his supernatural fiction was only a hobby. Which is too bad because think of the stories we would have had if he had devoted his writing to more weird stories.
Many, but not all, of the writers who are remembered for their ghost stories were better known in their day for other types of writing. E. F. Benson is a prime example. His Mapp and Lucia books were quite popular, although thanks to PBS, they are still read today.
Yes. Robert Chambers is remember most for the King in Yellow, but wrote mostly “shop girl” romances and on occasion frontier novels which Robert E. Howard admired. The frontier novels not the romances.
I think M. R. James may be one of the few who exclusively wrote ghost stories. His day job, which I’m sure you know, was as a professor.
Yes, I knew that James was a professor. Kinda like another guy I know of who exclusively wrote fantasy stories and not romances.
Wakefield may have been another who only wrote ghost and horror stories, at least among those who earned their living writing. A number of the early Ash-Tree Press volume collected authors who also only wrote ghost stories because they had jobs outside of writing. None of them were as well known as James.