Benson (1871-1914) was an English Anglican priest who in 1903 was received into the Roman Catholic Church in which he was ordained a priest in 1904. He was educated at Eton College and then studied classics and theology at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1890-93. In 1895 he was ordained a priest in the Church of England by his father, Edward White Benson, who was the then Archbishop of Canterbury but by the early 1900s he had become more and more uneasy with his own doctrinal position which led to his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest. He was a prolific writer of fiction whose output encompassed historical, horror and science fiction, contemporary fiction and children's stories, as well as plays, devotional works and articles. He continued his writing career at the same time as he progressed through the hierarchy to become a Chamberlain to the Pope in 1911 and subsequently titled Monsignor. This collection of horror and ghost stories was published in 1903.