Book excerpt: William Hope Hodgson spent his early life as a cabin boy, before becoming a prolific author. Although best-known nowadays for two novels – The House on the Borderland (1908) and The Night Land (1912) – his short fiction was also extremely popular in its day. Many of the earliest ghost stories and tales of hauntings, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.