[Next Project] John Silence stories by Algernon Blackwood

[Alexander Keane]

I've been interested in occult detective stories, from reading stuff like Dresden Files, and reading up on the genre pointed me back to the John Silence stories by Algernon Blackwood.

Blackwood short fiction is on the wanted list, and this would be a collection of six related stories resulting in a word count around 110k-120k.

Project Gutenberg conveniently has the stories packaged into two collections of three stories each. (There's also another PG book transcribing the original "John Silence, Physician Extraordinary" collection from 1908, which contains the first five John Silence stories)

Three John Silence Stories: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10624

Three More John Silence Stories: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10659

Scans for original five stories: https://archive.org/details/johnsilencephysi00blac

Scans for Occult Review Vol 20 n 6 Dec 1914, containing "A Victim of Higher Space": https://archive.org/details/IAPSOP-occult_review_v20_n6_dec_1914

(PG Link for the John Silence, Physician Extraordinary, corresponding to scans: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/49222)

[Emma Sweeney]

An Algernon Blackwood omnibus was attempted a few years ago, and the short fiction portion contained 155 short stories that are listed in this spreadsheet. It has been a while since this list was made, so you would need to do some more research to see if there are more short stories in the public domain. I just wanted to give you a heads-up about the scope of this production before you dive in.

Emma

[Weijia Cheng]

By the way, the last time a Blackwood omnibus was attempted, it got quite sidetracked due to lack of communication with the editors as to what texts should go into what collections. If you are going to work on Blackwood, please make a case for how to divide his writing before doing anything else. Asking because I had to compile the spreadsheet Emma linked dividing everything up into genres!

[Alex Cabal]

OK, I think this sounds reasonable. As Emma mentioned there is a
spreadsheet, so please update it to indicate that these six stories are
in a different collection.

Please send a link to your repo once you get started.

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[Alexander Keane]

Alright, as I get ready to set up the repository, I'm going to use the title "John Silence Stories" to be consistent with the collections "Allan Quartermain Stories" and "Mr. Mulliner Stories" already released.

I thought about using the title of the original collection "John Silence, Physician Extraordinary" but I'm including the sixth John Silence story that did not come from that original collection.

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[Emma Sweeney]

"John Silence Stories" makes sense. It looks like other John Silence collections renumbered the cases to be cases 1-6.

Emma

[Alex Cabal]

OK - send a repo link please. Thanks!

> ebooks/10659 <https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10659>

> > Scans for original five stories: https://archive.org/details/
> <https://archive.org/details/>
> > johnsilencephysi00blac
> > Scans for Occult Review Vol 20 n 6 Dec 1914, containing "A Victim of

> > Higher Space": https://archive.org/details/IAPSOP- <https://
> archive.org/details/IAPSOP->

> > occult_review_v20_n6_dec_1914
> >
> > (PG Link for the John Silence, Physician Extraordinary,
> corresponding to

> > scans: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/49222 <https://gutenberg.org/
> ebooks/49222>)

> >
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[Alexander Keane]

Now that I know the title:

https://github.com/squishy-mage/algernon-blackwood_john-silence-stories.git

(Working on easiest way to create draft from multiple sources then I'll get things set for initial commit)

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Weijia will manage this with Robin reviewing.

> > <https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10624 <https://gutenberg.org/

> ebooks/10624>>
> > > Three More John Silence Stories: https://gutenberg.org/
> <https://gutenberg.org/>

> > ebooks/10659 <https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10659 <https://

> gutenberg.org/ebooks/10659>>
> > > Scans for original five stories: https://archive.org/details/
> <https://archive.org/details/>
> > <https://archive.org/details/ <https://archive.org/details/>>
> > > johnsilencephysi00blac
> > > Scans for Occult Review Vol 20 n 6 Dec 1914, containing "A
> Victim of
> > > Higher Space": https://archive.org/details/IAPSOP- <https://

> archive.org/details/IAPSOP-> <https://
> > archive.org/details/IAPSOP- <http://archive.org/details/IAPSOP->>

> > > occult_review_v20_n6_dec_1914
> > >
> > > (PG Link for the John Silence, Physician Extraordinary,
> > corresponding to
> > > scans: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/49222 <https://

> gutenberg.org/ebooks/49222> <https://gutenberg.org/ <https://
> gutenberg.org/>

> > ebooks/49222>)
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[Weijia Cheng]

Alright, noted! I also updated the spreadsheet to note the new story collection.

[Alexander Keane]

I'm thinking of retaining the original collection's "Case X" title names for story headings, but since each "Case" is technically a short, I believe I should change the file names and section names from "chapter-X" to individual story name, correct? Eg. a-psychical-invasion.xhtml instead of chapter-1.xhtml

[Weijia Cheng]

Yes, I think that's fine.

[Alexander Keane]

Ive got a mix of novella length and novelette length stories.

For semantics how do we do the cut-off between se:novella and se:short-stort? I can see either defaulting to the lower length definition and calling it a short or defaulting to novella since it's split into little chapters.

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[Alex Cabal]

Use `se word-count --categorize` on a file to see what it should be

On 9/17/25 11:22 AM, Alexander Keane wrote:
> Ive got a mix of novella length and novelette length stories.
>
> For semantics how do we do the cut-off between se:novella and se:short-
> stort? I can see either defaulting to the lower length definition and
> calling it a short or defaulting to novella since it's split into little
> chapters.
>
> On Sat, Sep 13, 2025, 3:21 PM 'Weijia Cheng' via Standard Ebooks
> <standar...@googlegroups.com

> <mailto:standar...@googlegroups.com>> wrote:
>
> Yes, I think that's fine.
>
> On Saturday, September 13, 2025 at 8:49:57 AM UTC-4

> lxtk...@gmail.com <mailto:lxtk...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm thinking of retaining the original collection's "Case X"
> title names for story headings, but since each "Case" is
> technically a short, I believe I should change the file names
> and section names from "chapter-X" to individual story name,
> correct? Eg. a-psychical-invasion.xhtml instead of chapter-1.xhtml
>
> On Friday, September 12, 2025 at 4:08:00 AM UTC-4 weij...@bu.edu
> wrote:
>

> Alright, noted! I also updated the spreadsheet <https://
> docs.google.com/spreadsheets/
> d/130sDHz3rFudKxenAPi_segf-4V0yTGaeVjTyYBv8P3M/edit?
> gid=0#gid=0> to note the new story collection.

>
> On Thursday, September 11, 2025 at 11:26:04 PM UTC-4 Alex
> Cabal wrote:
>
> OK, Weijia will manage this with Robin reviewing.
>
> On 9/11/25 9:46 PM, Alexander Keane wrote:
> > Now that I know the title:
> >
> > https://github.com/squishy-mage/algernon-

> blackwood_john-silence-stories.git <https://github.com/
> squishy-mage/algernon-blackwood_john-silence-stories.git>

> gutenberg.org/ebooks/10624 <https://gutenberg.org/
> ebooks/10624>
> > <https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10624 <https://
> gutenberg.org/ebooks/10624>>
> > > <https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10624 <https://
> gutenberg.org/ebooks/10624> <https://gutenberg.org/

> <https://gutenberg.org/>
> > ebooks/10624>>
> > > > Three More John Silence Stories: https://
> gutenberg.org/ <https://gutenberg.org/>
> > <https://gutenberg.org/ <https://gutenberg.org/>>
> > > ebooks/10659 <https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10659

> <https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10659> <https://
> > gutenberg.org/ebooks/10659 <http://gutenberg.org/

> ebooks/10659>>>
> > > > Scans for original five stories: https://

> archive.org/details/ <https://archive.org/details/>

> > <https://archive.org/details/ <https://archive.org/
> details/>>

> > > <https://archive.org/details/ <https://archive.org/
> details/> <https://archive.org/details/ <https://

> archive.org/details/>>>
> > > > johnsilencephysi00blac
> > > > Scans for Occult Review Vol 20 n 6 Dec 1914,
> containing "A
> > Victim of
> > > > Higher Space": https://archive.org/details/
> IAPSOP- <https://archive.org/details/IAPSOP-> <https://

> > archive.org/details/IAPSOP- <http://archive.org/

> details/IAPSOP->> <https://
> > > archive.org/details/IAPSOP- <http://archive.org/

> details/IAPSOP-> <http://archive.org/details/IAPSOP-

> <http://archive.org/details/IAPSOP->>>
> > > > occult_review_v20_n6_dec_1914
> > > >
> > > > (PG Link for the John Silence, Physician
> Extraordinary,
> > > corresponding to
> > > > scans: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/49222
> <https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/49222> <https://

> > gutenberg.org/ebooks/49222 <http://gutenberg.org/

> ebooks/49222>> <https://gutenberg.org/ <https://

> gutenberg.org/> <https://
> > gutenberg.org/ <http://gutenberg.org/>>

> > > ebooks/49222>)
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