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Robert W. Chambers was one of the most prolific and most popular American authors in the first half of the twentieth century. However, Chambers's influence on American letters, unlike that of his best-selling contemporary Jack London, diminished rapidly after the publication of his last work. Instead of altering American literary sensibilities, Chambers was commonly criticized by writers and reviewers for pandering to popular tastes. His significance as a writer, then, derives less from his role as a shaper than as a mirror of American tastes. In his heyday Chambers was the king of the historical romance, but his only works that remain in print are his supernatural tales. As for the rest of his fiction, it is unlikely that the nearly ninety novels and short-story collections, long out of print, will see publication again.
Chambers's reputation as a writer of tales of terror is due in large part to the success of his short-story collection The King in Yellow (1895), regarded by his contemporaries and later critics as an important achievement in the development of the Gothic short story.
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