Arthur Machen

The Secret Glory Arthur Machen

Publisher Marketing: The origin and genesis of The Secret Glory were odd enough. Once on a time, I read the life of a famous schoolmaster, one of the most notable schoolmasters of these later days. I believe he was an excellent man in every way; but, somehow, that Life got on my nerves. I thought that the School Songs - for which, amongst other things, this master was famous - were drivel; I thought his views about football, regarded, not as a good game, but as the discipline and guide of life, were rot, and poisonous rot at that. In a word, the Life of this excellent man got my back up. Very good. The year after, schoolmasters and football had ceased to engage my attention. I was deeply interested in a curious and minute investigation of the wonderful legend of the Holy Grail; or rather, in one aspect of that extraordinary complex. My researches led me to the connection of the Grail Legend with the vanished Celtic Church which held the field in Britain in the fifth and sixth and seventh centuries; I undertook an extraordinary and fascinating journey into a misty and uncertain region of Christian history. I must not say more here, lest - as Nurse says to the troublesome and persistent child I begin all over again; but, indeed, it was a voyage on perilous seas, a journey to faery lands forlorn - and I would declare, by the way, my conviction that if there had been no Celtic Church, Keats could never have written those lines of tremendous evocation and incantation. Contributor Bio:  Machen, Arthur Arthur Machen (3 March 1863 - 15 December 1947) was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella "The Great God Pan" (1890; 1894) has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror (Stephen King called it "Maybe the best [horror story] in the English language"). He is also well known for his influence on authors like H. P. Lovecraft and his leading role in creating the legend of the Angels of Mons.