Montague Rhodes James was born in Kent in 1862, where his father was curate. He was educated at Eton and then at King's College, Cambridge, where he became assistant in classical archaeology at the Fitzwilliam Museum. He was elected a Fellow of King's and then lectured in Divinity, becoming Dean of the College in 1889. He was made Provost of King's in 1905 and was Vice Chancellor of the University from 1913 to 1915. In 1918 he became Provost of Eton. Although a great scholar of his day, it is now for his ghost stories that James is best remembered. The stories were published in several volumes between 1904 and 1931, including Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919) and A Warning to the Curious (1925). His memoirs, Eton and King's, were published in 1926. He died in 1936.