Arthur Machen
Around 1890 Machen began to publish in literary magazines, writing stories influenced by the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, some of which used gothic or fantastic themes. This led to his first major success, "The Great God Pan". It was published in 1894 by John Lane in the noted Keynotes Series, which was part of the growing aesthetic movement of the time. Machen's story was widely denounced for its sexual and horrific content and consequently sold well, going into a second edition.
The Great God Pan
Machen's lifelong fascination with occultism began after he read an article on alchemy in an edition of Charles Dickens's periodical "Household Words" belonging to his father, a clergyman. In his 1922 autobiography, "Far Off Things", Machen wrote that "The Great God Pan" was inspired by the times he visited the Usk, a Welsh river, and the Welsh towns of Caerleon on the Usk and Caerwent as a boy; all of these places had been settled by the Romans. He wrote that "strange relics" were frequently found at Caerwent from the ruined temple of "Nodens, god of the depths". Machen visited the temple, which he described as a "lonely house between the dark forest and the silver river".