M.R. James

**Montague Rhodes James** (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1913–15).

Though James's work as a medievalist and scholar is still highly regarded, he is best remembered for his ghost stories, which some regard as among the best in the genre. James redefined the ghost story for the new century by abandoning many of the formal Gothic clichés of his predecessors and using more realistic contemporary settings. However, James's protagonists and plots tend to reflect his own antiquarian interests. Accordingly, he is known as the originator of the "antiquarian ghost story".

James perfected a method of story-telling which has since become known as Jamesian. The classic Jamesian tale usually includes the following elements:

1. a characterful setting in an English village, seaside town or country estate; an ancient town in France, Denmark or Sweden; or a venerable abbey or university
2. a nondescript and rather naive gentleman-scholar as protagonist (often of a reserved nature)
3. the discovery of an old book or other antiquarian object that somehow unlocks, calls down the wrath, or at least attracts the unwelcome attention of a supernatural menace, usually from beyond the grave

***Cadabra Releases:***

Casting the Runes

Number 13

Count Magnus

The Ash-Tree

***Bibliography:***

### Scholarly works

* *A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Peterhouse*. Cambridge University Press, 1899. Reissued by the publisher, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00307-0
* *Walter Map : De Nugis Curialium* (ed.) Anecdota Oxoniensia ; Mediaeval and Modern Series 14. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1914.
* *A Descriptive Catalogue of the Library of Samuel Pepys*. Sidgwick and Jackson, 1923. Reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00205-9
* *A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum*. Cambridge University Press, 1895. Reissued by the publisher, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00396-4
* *A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge*. Cambridge University Press, 1912. Reissued by the publisher, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00485-5
* *A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College*. 2 vols. Cambridge University Press, 1907. Reissued by the publisher, 2009; ISBN 978-1-108-00248-6
* *A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Jesus College*. Clay and Sons, 1895. Reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00351-3
* *A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Pembroke College, Cambridge*. Cambridge University Press, 1905. Reissued by the publisher, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00028-4
* *A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of St John's College, Cambridge*. Cambridge University Press, 1913. Reissued by the publisher, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00310-0
* *A Descriptive Catalogue of the McClean Collection of Manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum*. Cambridge University Press, 1913. Reissued by the publisher, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00309-4
* *Apocrypha Anecdota*. 1893–1897.
* *Descriptive Catalogues of the Manuscripts in the Libraries of Some Cambridge Colleges*. Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00258-5
* *Address at the Unveiling of the Roll of Honour of the Cambridge Tipperary Club.*. 1916.
* *Henry the Sixth: A Reprint of John Blacman's Memoir*. 1919.
* *Lists of manuscripts formerly in Peterborough Abbey library: with preface and identifications*. Oxford University Press, 1926. Reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-108-01135-8
* *New and Old at Cambridge' article on the Cambridge of 1882. 'Fifty Years', various contributors, Thornton Butterworth,1932*
* *The Apocalypse in Art*. Schweich Lectures for 1927.
* *The Apocryphal New Testament*. 1924.
* *The Bestiary: Being a Reproduction in Full of the Manuscript Ii.4.26 in the University Library, Cambridge*. Printed for the Roxburghe club, by John Johnson at the University Press, 1928.
* *The Biblical Antiquities of Philo*. 1917.
* *The Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament*. Vol. 1, 1920.
* *The Wanderings and Homes of Manuscripts*. 1919.
* *Two Ancient English Scholars: St Aldhelm and William of Malmesbury*. 1931.
* *The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Emmanuel College*. Cambridge University Press, 1904. Reissued by the publisher, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00308-7
* *The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College*. 4 vols. Cambridge University Press, 1904. Reissued by the publisher, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00288-2

### Ghost stories

#### First book publications

* *Ghost Stories of an Antiquary*. 1904. 8 stories.
* *More Ghost Stories*. 1911. 7 stories.
* *A Thin Ghost and Others*. 1919. 5 stories.
* *A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories*. 1925. 6 stories.
* *Wailing Well*. 1928 (tale), Mill House Press, Stanford Dingley.

#### First magazine publication of uncollected tales

* "After Dark in the Playing Fields", in *College Days* (Eton ephemeral magazine), no. 10 (28 June 1924), pp. 311–312, 314
* "There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard", in *Snapdragon* (Eton ephemeral magazine), 6 December 1924, pp. 4–5
* "Rats", in *At Random* (Eton ephemeral magazine), 23 March 1929, pp. 12–14
* "The Experiment: A New Year's Eve Ghost Story", in *Morning Post*, 31 December 1931, p. 8
* "The Malice of Inanimate Objects", in *The Masquerade* (Eton ephemeral magazine), no. 1 (June 1933), pp. 29–32
* "A Vignette", written 1935, in *London Mercury* 35 (November 1936), pp. 18–22