"Day and Night Stories" is a collection of short stories by Algernon Blackwood, a British author known for his supernatural and horror fiction. The collection contains 15 stories that explore various themes related to the supernatural, the unknown, and the mysterious. Many of the stories in the collection involve encounters between humans and otherworldly beings or forces, such as ghosts, spirits, and elemental forces. For example, "The Occupant of the Room" tells the story of a man who rents a room in a haunted house, while "The Transfer" explores the idea of soul transference between humans and animals. Other stories in the collection delve into psychological and philosophical themes, such as the nature of consciousness, the limits of human knowledge, and the search for meaning in a chaotic and mysterious world. "The Wings of Horus" tells the story of an Egyptologist who becomes obsessed with a mysterious artifact that seems to grant its possessor supernatural powers, while "An Egyptian Hornet" explores the idea of ancestral memory and its impact on human behavior. Overall, "Day and Night Stories" is a fascinating and thought-provoking collection of tales that offer a unique and unsettling perspective on the human experience and the mysteries of the universe.
Algernon Blackwood, one of the most prolific ghost story authors in the genre's history, was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist, and short story writer (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951). According to the literary critic S. T. Joshi, Incredible Adventures (1914), a collection of short stories, "may be the finest weird book of this or any other century," and "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's." A few weeks after his passing, his nephew carried his ashes to the Swiss Alps' Saanenmöser Pass and spread them among the peaks he had cherished for more than 40 years. Shooter's Hill is where Blackwood was born (now part of south-east London, then part of north-west Kent). He attended Wellington College and resided at Crayford Manor House in Crayford from 1871 and 1880. His mother, Harriet Dobbs, was the widow of the 6th Duke of Manchester; his father, Sir Stevenson Arthur Blackwood, was a Post Office official. Following many strokes, Blackwood passed away. Officially, cerebral thrombosis was the cause of his death on December 10, 1951; arteriosclerosis was a contributory factor. At the Golders Green Crematorium, he was cremated.
