The Novel of the White Powder

Arthur Llewelyn Jones was born in Caerleon|Monmouthshire on the 3rd March 1863.Machen came from a long line of clergymen|a maverick music teacher with a passion for the theatre. He also began to receive legacies from Scottish relatives which allowed him to devote more time to writing.After publishing in literary magazines in 1894 he published his first book 'The Great God Pan'. Its sexual and horrific content very much helped sales.Over the next decade or so he wrote some of his best work but was unable to find a publisher mainly due to the collapse of the decadent market over Oscar Wilde's scandalous trial.In 1899|and Machen was brought up at the rectory there.In his early years he received an excellent classical education|and he was sent to London to sit exams to attend medical school but failed the exams. He did show literary promise with the publication of the poem 'Eleusinia' in 1821. But life in London was difficult and it was only in 1884 that he published again and was taken on to translate several French works which thereafter became the standard editions for many years.In 1887|and when he was two|but family poverty ruled out university|by the late 20's new works had dried up and his back catalogue was no longer a source of regular income.In 1932 he received a Civil List pension of ?100 per annum but other work was not forthcoming. His finances finally stabilised with a literary appeal in 1943 for his eightieth birthday and allowed him to live his remaining years in relative comfort.Arthur Machen died on 15th December 1947 in Beaconsfield. He was 84.A man is prescribed a medicine that turns him from a hard studying student of the law to something so compellingly awful that only Machen himself could have willed it into reality.