Our Pages - Author Profiles - M R James
A Little About M R JamesThe success of his supernatural tales was founded on his antiquarian talents and knowledge, as indeed his work as a medieval scholar was prodigious and his numerous scholarly works remain highly respected in scholarly circles. M R James was after all first and foremost an eminent scholar and his 1917 edition of the Latin Lives of Saint Aethelberht, king and martyr (English Historical Review 32), remains authoritative. He spent his entire adult life in the academic surroundings of Cambridge and Eton, as provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905 to 1918) first, then Eton College (1918 to 1936).
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Montague Rhodes James OM, MA, FBA
Born: 1 August 1862, Goodnestone Parsonage in Kent, England Died: 12 June 1936 (aged 73), Eton, Berkshire, England Genres: Ghost Stories, Medieval Scholarly Work M R James is arguably the finest ghost-story writer England has ever produced and his ghost stories are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature. They are classics of their genre and are all designed to instill that satisfying 'sense of unease' in the heart of the reader by drawing on the terrors of the everyday. His stories often use rural settings, with a quiet, scholarly protagonist getting caught up in the activities of supernatural forces.
Perhaps another reason for the success of his ghostly tales is the fact that he re-defined the 'ghost story' for the new century by using more realistic contemporary settings instead of the formal gothic clichés of his predecessors. One might presume to say that by doing so, M R James immediately ensured that his ghost stories became more appealling to a wider and, especially, younger audience. Which is probably why his ghost stories are still loved and very much enjoyed and appreciated today. M R James' classic supernatural tales have lost none of their power to unsettle and disturb.
According to thehauntologicalsociety.blogspot.sg, M R James, a late-Victorian bachelor, never married. Much more important to him apparently was the question of ordination, and as such became a deacon, but never a priest. He died on 12 June 1936 at the age of 73, and was buried in Eton town cemetery, Berkshire, England.
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