W. W. Jacobs

W. W. Jacobs was born in London and worked as a clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank while he began writing. His comic stories of sailors and dockside characters, collected in books such as Many Cargoes, made his name in the 1890s. The Monkey's Paw, a short horror story about three wishes granted by a cursed charm, appeared in 1902 and is still widely read and adapted. He wrote in a plain, dry style and left the Post Office to write full time.