Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder is a collection of occult detective short stories and is listed as No. 53 in Queen's Quorum: A History of the Detective-Crime Short Story As Revealed by the 100 Most Important Books Published in this Field Since 1845 by Ellery Queen.
During their original run, the magazine that published them boasted: "Complaints continue to reach us from all parts of the country to the effect that Mr. William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki stories are producing a widespread epidemic of Nervous Prostration! So far from being able to reassure or calm our nervous readers, we are compelled to warn them that 'The Whistling Room,' which we publish this month, is worse than ever. Our advertising manager had to go to bed for two days after reading the advance sheets; a proofreader has sent in his resignation; and, worst of all, our smartest office boy--But this is no place to bewail or seek for sympathy. Yet another of those stories will appear in April!"

William Hope Hodgson (1877 - 1918) was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction and science fiction. Hodgson used his experiences at sea to lend authentic detail to his short horror stories, many of which are set on the ocean, including his series of linked tales forming the "Sargasso Sea Stories". His novels, such as The House on the Borderland (1908) and The Night Land (1912), feature more cosmic themes, but several of his novels also focus on horrors associated with the sea. Early in his writing career Hodgson dedicated his efforts to poetry, although few of his poems were published during his lifetime. He died in World War I at age 40.