Walter de la Mare is better known as a poet and a writer for children than as an author of fantasy or science fiction, but much of the fiction he wrote is fantastic in nature. Within fantasy and horror fiction he is widely considered a figure of considerable importance, even as his general literary reputation has declined since his death. His work is frequently described as neo-Romantic, and his evocations of nature and the past are often connected with the supernatural. As Doris Ross McCrosson points out in her 1966 study of de la Mare's career, much of his work is concerned with the roles of imagination and dreams and with the experiences of children, and fantastic fiction was central in his exploration of these concerns. She also notes how de la Mare, like many of the Victorian writers before him, employed realistic settings and characterization as a means...