W.W. Jacobs was a late 19th- early 20th century novelist, short story writer and playwright, best known for his horror classic, the short story "The Monkey's Paw," which was part of a collection of short fiction published in 1902 called "The Lady of the Barge." Jacobs mainly wrote humorous fiction, primarily about dockworkers and seafaring men, but he also had a taste for the macabre, writing a number of spooky and disturbing short stories. After World War I, he shifted from writing for magazines to adapting his stories for the stage. He would wind up writing eighteen plays in all, some on his own and some in collaboration with other writers. A number of his works were also adapted for the screen and Jacobs was occasionally involved in their creation as well. W.W. Jacobs died in London in 1943 at the age of seventy-nine.