The Children of the Pool

“The Children of the Pool” is a 1936 collection of six stories by Welsh author and mystic Arthur Machan. Each tale is imbued with the supernatural or inexplicable that dominated Machan's life and work, featuring characters such as the bookish recluse in “The Exalted Omega” and the kabbalistic artist in “Out of the Picture”. Arthur Machen (1863 – 1947) was a Welsh author and renowned mystic during the 1890s and early 20th century who garnered literary acclaim for his contributions to the supernatural, horror, and fantasy fiction genres. His seminal novella “The Great God Pan” (1890) has become a classic of horror fiction, with Stephen King describing it as one of the best horror stories ever written in the English language. Other notable fans of his gruesome tales include William Butler Yeats and Arthur Conan Doyle; and his work has been compared to that of Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde. Contents include: “The Exalted Omega”, “The Children of the Pool”, “The Bright Boy”, “The Tree of Life”, “Out of the Picture”, and “Change”. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.