5 Quotes & Sayings By Mr James

M. R. James was one of the most prolific and popular writers of ghost stories in England. He is best known for his work in the field of ghost and horror fiction and is credited with creating the modern ghost story genre Read more

He was born on November 22, 1850, in Herefordshire, England and died on July 29, 1916. As a young man, James studied at Magdalen College, Oxford where he participated in debates and joined the Sherlock Holmes Society. After graduating from Oxford in 1875, James took a position as a teacher at a school in Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

In 1880 James moved to Cambridge to take up a post at Trinity College, where he worked for four years before moving to London where he worked as a professor at University College and lectured on Shakespeare and other authors at University College School of Music and Drama.

1
Those who spend the greater part of their time in reading or writing books are, of course, apt to take rather particular notice of accumulations of books when they come across them. They will not pass a stall, a shop, or even a bedroom-shelf without reading some title, and if they find themselves in an unfamiliar library, no host need trouble himself further about their entertainment. M.R. James
2
I assure you, if Uncle Henry had stepped out from among the trees in a little copse which borders the path at one place, carrying his head under his arm, I should have been very little more uncomfortable than I was. To tell you the truth, I was rather expecting something of the kind. M.R. James
3
The moon shone upon his almost transparent hands, and Stephen saw that the nails were fearfully long and that the light shone through them. M.R. James
4
Those who spend the greater part of their time in reading or writing books are, of course, apt to take rather particular notice of accumulations of books when they come across them. They will not pass a stall, a shop, or even a bedroom-shelf without reading some title, and if they find themselves in an unfamiliar library, no host need trouble himself further about their entertainment. The putting of dispersed sets of volumes together, or the turning right way up of those which the dusting housemaid has left in an apoplectic condition, appeals to them as one of the lesser Works of Mercy. Happy in these employments, and in occasionally opening an eighteenth-century octavo, to see 'what it is all about, ' and to conclude after five minutes that it deserves the seclusion it now enjoys, I had reached the middle of a wet August afternoon at Betton Court..-the beginning of the story "A Neighbor's Landmark. M.R. James