William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918) was an English author, sailor, bodybuilder, and photographer who pioneered weird fiction and supernatural horror. Born in Essex, he ran away to sea as a youth—experiences that shaped his terrifying maritime tales. He created Thomas Carnacki, the Ghost Hunter, one of literature's first occult detectives, and wrote landmark novels including The House on the Borderland (1908), praised by H.P. Lovecraft, and the post-apocalyptic epic The Night Land (1912). Killed in World War I at age 40, his cosmic horror continues to influence writers today.
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