SOURCE: Roden, Barbara. An introduction to The Clock Strikes Twelve and Other Stories, pp. ix-xxii. Ashcroft, British Columbia: Ash-Tree Press, 1998.

In the following essay, Roden gives an overview of Wakefield's writing career, discussing his possible motivations for attempting not only the ghost stories for which he is best known, but other genres as well.

When H. R. Wakefield's third collection of original fiction, Imagine a Man in a Box, appeared in 1931, its author had left the relative safety of a steady job in publishing in favour of earning a living solely from his writing. He must have known from his experience as a publisher that such a step was a very risky one, and that a relatively small percentage of authors were able to keep themselves comfortably well off simply by putting pen to paper.

However, Wakefield's prospects were certainly as good as, if not better than, those...