Robert W. Chambers 1865—1933

Robert William Chambers was an American artist and fiction writer. His first novel, In the Quarter was published in 1887 but his most famous, and perhaps most meritorious, effort is The King in Yellow, a collection of Art Nouveau short stories. E. F. Bleiler describes it as one of the most important works of American supernatural fiction.It was also strongly admired by H.P. Lovecraft and his circle. Chambers returned to the weird genre in his later short story collections The Maker of Moons, The Mystery of Choice and The Tree of Heaven, but none earned him as much success as The King in Yellow. Some of Chambers’s work contains elements of science fiction, such as In Search of the Unknown and Police!!!, about a zoologist who encounters monsters. Chambers later turned to writing romantic fiction to earn a living and according to some estimates, had one of the most successful literary careers of his period, his later novels selling well and a handful achieving best-seller status.