W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs

Born in London on September 8, 1863, William Wymark Jacobs grew up in Wapping, where his father managed a Thames wharf. That riverside world stayed with him and helped shape the lively seafaring settings that became a hallmark of his fiction.

Jacobs worked for years in the Post Office Savings Bank while building his writing career, then became a full-time author after the success of collections such as Many Cargoes. Although modern readers most often meet him through the eerie and much-anthologized "The Monkey’s Paw," he was widely admired in his own time for humorous short stories, especially those centered on sailors and waterfront characters.

He also wrote plays and continued publishing fiction well into the early 20th century. Jacobs died in London on September 1, 1943, but his reputation endures thanks to the memorable mix of wit, atmosphere, and quiet menace that runs through his best work.