[3] The death of a child is a theme in several of Hodgson's works including the short stories "The Valley of Lost Children", "The Sea-Horses", and "The Searcher of the End House".

Hodgson's father was moved frequently and served 11 different parishes in 21 years, including one in Ardrahan, County Galway, Ireland.

He was caught and returned to his family, but eventually received his father's permission to be apprenticed as a cabin boy and began a four-year apprenticeship in 1891.

While away at sea, in addition to his exercises with weights and with a punching bag, Hodgson also practised his photography, taking photographs of aurora borealis, cyclones, lightning, sharks, and the maggots that infested the food given to sailors.

[3] In November 1898, he was awarded the Royal Humane Society medal for heroism for saving another sailor who, in March of the same year, had fallen from the topmast into the sea in shark-infested waters off the coast of New Zealand.

[3] In 1899, at age 22, he opened a School of Physical Culture in Ainsworth Street, Blackburn, England, as "the inventor and teacher of a system that will cure indigestion".

[8] His behaviour towards Houdini generated controversy; the escape artist had some difficulty removing his restraints, complaining that Hodgson had deliberately injured him and jammed the locks of his handcuffs.

[8] Hodgson was not shy of publicity, and in another notable stunt, rode a bicycle down a street so steep that it had stairs, an event written up in the local paper.

This led to a second article in The Nautical Magazine, an exposé on the subject of apprenticeships; at the time, families often were forced to pay to have boys accepted as apprentices.

Hodgson began to give paid lectures, illustrated with his photography in the form of colorized slides, about his experiences at sea.

Also in 1908, Hodgson published his second novel, The House on the Borderland, again to positive reviews, as well as an unusual satirical science fiction story, "Date 1965: Modern Warfare", a Swiftian satire in which it is suggested that war should be carried out by men fighting in pens with knives, and the corpses carefully salvaged for food, although in letters to the editor published at the time, Hodgson expressed strong patriotic sentiments.

Hodgson, whose literary success would be in a large measure based on the impressions he received at sea, actually hated and feared the waters with an intensity that was the passion of his life.

With this book, the author believes that he closes the door, so far as he is concerned, on a particular phase of constructive thought.The Bookman magazine in its review of the novel in 1909 concluded with the comment: We can only hope that Mr. Hodgson may be induced to reconsider his decision, for we know of nothing like the author's previous work in the whole of present-day literature.Despite the critical success of his novels, Hodgson remained relatively poor.

In 1912, Hodgson married Betty Farnworth, known also as Bessie, a girl from Cheadle Hulme and a staff member who wrote the "agony" column for the women's magazine Home Notes.

[10] In 1916, he was thrown from a horse and suffered a broken jaw and a serious head injury; he received a mandatory discharge on 10 June 1916,[11] and returned to writing.

Refusing to remain on the sidelines of WWI, Hodgson recovered sufficiently to re-enlist, receiving a new commission as second lieutenant on 18 March 1917.

Hodgson was killed by the direct impact of an artillery shell at the Fourth Battle of Ypres in April 1918; sources suggest either the 17th or 19th.

The House on the Borderland (1908) is a novel of which H. P. Lovecraft, in his long essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature", wrote "but for a few touches of commonplace sentimentality [it] would be a classic of the first water".

The Ghost Pirates (1909) has less of a reputation than The House on the Borderland, but is an effective seafaring horror story of a ship attacked and ultimately dragged down to its doom by supernatural creatures.

The book purports to be the spoken testimony of the sole survivor, and the style lacks the pseudo-archaism which makes The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" (1907) and The Night Land tedious reading for many.

Hodgson is also known for his short stories featuring recurring characters: the "detective of the occult" Thomas Carnacki, and the smuggler Captain Gault.

Modern authors who cite Hodgson as an influence include Iain Sinclair,[18] Gene Wolfe, Greg Bear, China Miéville, Simon Clark, Elizabeth Massie, Tim Lebbon, and Brian Keene.