Algernon Blackwood has influenced weird fiction and horror writers down to the present day, with H.P. Lovecraft naming him among the modern masters of the genre.  

East of Vienna, a canoe trip down the length of the Danube River turns strange and horrifying.  

The two men traveling find it bad enough when they are forced to camp on an isolated island in the middle of nowhere while gale-force winds howl and waters rise. But soon, the threats take on a supernatural tinge. Wild sounds and visions in the night convince the men that they’re being hunted by beings from another dimension, who are not so much malicious as vastly, cosmically indifferent to their welfare–and hungry.  

The Willows, which first appeared in The Listener and Other Stories (1907), is one of his best-known tales. Noted weird fiction writer Ruthanna Emrys enlivens the text with sprightly commentary and traces the streams of story to their headwaters in a poetic and penetrating introduction. 

“Emrys' masterful annotations and enlightening introduction provide fine insights into how the weird casts its spell in Blackwood's classic story.”—David Sandner, editor of The Afterlife of Frankenstein  

“Emrys sketches the work’s historical, ecological, and literary context in sharply written and insightful notes that are an absolute pleasure to read.” —Rebecca Campbell, Ursula K. Le Guin Prize–winning author of Arboreality  

"This is where slow-burn horror originated.” —Brian Evenson, Shirley Jackson Award–winning author of Song for the Unraveling of the World 

Ruthanna Emrys is the author of A Half-Built Garden, Winter Tide, and Deep Roots, as well as co-writer of Reactor's Reading the Weird column with Anne M. Pillsworth. She also writes radically hopeful short stories about religion and aliens and psycholinguistics. She lives in a mysterious manor house on the outskirts of Washington, DC with her wife and their large, strange family. There she creates real versions of imaginary foods, gives unsolicited advice, and occasionally attempts to save the world.