William Wymark Jacobs (1863 – 1943) is an example of a very rare literary phenomenon: he is an unquestioned master of horror fiction, and while he was a relatively active contributor to the genre, he is known almost exclusively for only one of his many skillful works. It is a checkered distinction. The name “Jacobs” is often printed in the table of contents of horror anthologies – which regularly include “The Monkey’s Paw,” “The Well,” “The Toll-House,” and “Jerry Bundler” in

There is perhaps no more cursed writer of horror in the English canon than the elegant Edwardian, W. W. Jacobs. World renowned for one tale, “The Monkey’s Paw,” he is often classed alongside the three S’s (Stoker, Shelley, and Stevenson) as an unquestionable dean of the classic British supernatural tale. But little or nothing else about his fiction is commonly read or talked about. “Jerry Bundler” receives some attention, and a bit is given to “The Toll House” and “The Well,”

While the weird tale and horror fiction existed in Britain long before the Edwardian Era (fl. 1895 - 1919), this period was certainly the zenith of supernatural fiction in the English-speaking world. Although the Victorians boasted a handful of truly excellent supernaturalists (Le Fanu, Riddell, Oliphant, Edwards, Broughton, etc.), the production of high-octane speculative fiction reached a high watermark during the years between Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan and M. R. Ja