M. R. JamesJohn Montague Rhodes James OM FBA was an English author, medievalist scholar, and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918) and Eton College (1918–1936). He was born on August 1, 1862, and died on June 12, 1936. From 1913 to 1915, he was Vice-hancellor of the University of Cambridge. Many people still think highly of James's work as a medievalist and researcher, but his ghost stories are what he is most famous for. Some people even think they are some of the best in the genre. He changed the ghost story for the 21st century by moving away from many of the formal Gothic tropes used by his predecessors and using more realistic modern settings. He is known as the creator of the "antiquarian ghost story" because the main characters and plots of his stories often represent his own interests in old things. James was born in a priest house in Goodnestone, Dover, Kent, England. His parents were from Aldeburgh, Suffolk, though. Herbert James, his father, was an Evangelical Anglican priest, and Mary Emily, his mother, was the daughter of a navy officer. He had an older sister named Grace and two older brothers named Sydney and Herbert (nicknamed "Ber"). In the end, Sydney James was made Archdeacon of Dudley. Read More Read Less