M. R. James

Biography

Montague Rhodes James (1862–1936) was an English medievalist, biblical scholar, and author of ghost stories, widely regarded as the greatest writer of supernatural fiction in the English language. Born in Goodnestone, Kent, the son of a clergyman, James was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge, where he spent most of his career. He served as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Provost of King’s College, and finally Provost of Eton—positions of enormous academic prestige. His scholarly work included cataloguing medieval manuscripts across Britain and translating apocryphal biblical texts. But James is best known for his ghost stories, written to be read aloud to friends on Christmas Eve, which perfected the "antiquarian ghost story"—a form in which scholarly protagonists, often medievalists like James himself, encounter supernatural horror through their research into old documents, artifacts, or buildings. His four collections—Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious (1925)—contain some of the most chilling tales ever written, including "Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad," "Casting the Runes," and "The Mezzotint."