M. R. James

Montague Rhodes James (1862–1936) was an English medievalist, scholar, and writer, celebrated for refining the modern ghost story. Educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge, he spent most of his career at Cambridge, becoming Provost of King’s College (1905–1918). He later served as Provost of Eton College (1918–1936). As an academic, he produced influential work on medieval manuscripts and apocryphal texts. James is best known for his eerie, understated supernatural tales, many first told as Christmas entertainments and later collected in volumes such as *Ghost Stories of an Antiquary* (1904). His stories helped define the “antiquarian” horror tradition.