J. Keighley Snowden

James Keighley Snowden (23 June 1860 – 17 January 1947) was the author of about fourteen volumes of fiction from 1893 to 1937 in addition to several works of non-fiction.

He had already sold several of his short stories set in Yorkshire to the Black and White and The Pall Mall Magazine.

In this early work Snowden described himself as a Yorkshireman "no longer privileged to dwell amongst his kinfolk" and referred to the book as "a tribute of affection."

From this book came the comic tale 'A Ghost Slayer', later included in the anthology Victorian Nightmares (1977) collected by Hugh Lamb.

His historical novel King Jack (1914) is set in the Yorkshire Dales during the early 19th-century and concerns a notorious outlaw and poacher.