A short life of the author
Robert Aickman (1914–1981) was born on 27 June 1914 in London. He was the grandson of the Victorian novelist Richard Marsh. He co-founded the Inland Waterways Association to preserve Britain’s canal system.
Life and Career
Aickman published his first collection, We Are for the Dark (1951), co-authored with Elizabeth Jane Howard. Dark Entries (1964) was his first solo collection. His best stories — “The Hospice,” “The Swords,” “Ringing the Changes,” “The Inner Room” — are unlike anything else in supernatural fiction: their events are ambiguous, their logic is dreamlike, and their horror comes not from monsters but from a pervasive wrongness that the reader can feel but never quite name.
Cold Hand in Mine (1975) — his most acclaimed collection — includes “The Swords,” “The Same Dog,” and “Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal” (winner of a World Fantasy Award).
Major Works and Themes
Aickman wrote about the uncanny, sexual disquiet, English repression, and the encounter with the inexplicable. His stories resist interpretation by design.
Key Works
- Cold Hand in Mine (1975)
- Dark Entries (1964)
Collecting Aickman
Original hardcover collections (Collins, Gollancz) are scarce and bring $100–$500. Tartarus Press and Faber reissues have brought him new readers. Aickman died in 1981.