Gerald Biss

Gerald Biss wrote English detective stories and supernatural fiction. The Door of the Unreal, first issued by Eveleigh Nash in 1919, brings those interests together in a mystery built around disappearances on the Brighton Road. Lincoln Osgood follows the trail to Clymping Manor, where local unease and old folklore point toward a threat associated with werewolves and Walpurgis Night. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia describes the novel as a supernatural tale set in Surrey, while Nezu Press presents it as a thriller that moves from an investigation into uncanny territory. Biss gives the story a recognizable modern framework through roads, motorists, and official inquiry before allowing the older legend to dominate. A later Nezu Press edition adds a biographical essay by Gina R. Collia, helping place the book within Biss’s broader career. The Door of the Unreal remains his best-known excursion into supernatural horror and an example of early twentieth-century British genre crossing. Its period detail also shows how new transport could carry ancient fears into the routines of modern travel.