The late Sam Gafford (1962-2019) was a scholar on the work of William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918). Hodgson wrote essays, short fiction, novels, and poetry, most in the genres of horror, fantastic, and science fiction.
Much of his short fiction appeared in pulp magazines in the U.K. and U.S., and is probably best known for his occult detective Carnacki and his weird fiction stories praised by H.P. Lovecraft.
In 2013, Gafford put out a collection: Hodgson: A Collection of Essays through his Ulthar Press. It’s still available on Amazon. This book contains 15 essays, most taken from his blog. They touch on various aspects of Hodgson’s life and work. The blog is still online, but who knows for how long?
We start off with a chronology of Hodgson’s life and another on his writing. Another gives an overview of his life. There is a look at the Hodgson studies. The only movie based on his works is Matango!, better known as Attack of the Mushroom People, and we get a write-up on this. Another looks into the dedications Hodgson had in his books and who they were referencing.
Ohe of the longest works is the first one that looks at Hodgson’s four novels and how they were written in reverse order of their publication. The other looks at a confrontation between Hodgson and Harry Houdini.
So this is a nice collection of essays that I’m not sure is available elsewhere. If you’re interested in Hodgson, this is a nice collection to get.
