In 1947 John Atkins prophesied that "Mr. de la Mare's fame will ultimately rest on his magnificent stories and two very interesting novels, not on his accomplished but minor verse." Atkins was correct to recognize that the fiction writer was superior to the poet, but de la Mare's particular kind of short story, grounded in mood and psychological horror, has become so common in our time that the popularity of such contemporary stories has superseded that of de la Mare's antecedent stories. Yet the influence of de la Mare has not disappeared entirely, for like a character in many of his stories, it can be seen in the work of authors whose characters inhabit what is now called a "dreamscape." Modern readers of psychological fantasy who are familiar with the work of writers such as Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, and even Angela Carter are quick to feel at home with de la Mare's characters and situations. His lyricism influenced a strain of popular literature that now remembers him only dimly, if at all. De la Mare himself said, "Our whole perception depends on our body, so when we die we lose not only our bodies but our whole apparatus of thought: we leave two vacua.
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