The Wildman family had obtained Quebec Estate, a large sugar plantation in Jamaica, from William Beckford, who was having financial problems.
William Thomas Beckford (1760–1844), English novelist, art collector, travel writer and politician
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Resnais's interest in 18th century British architecture and the extravagant projects of William Beckford provided the starting point for the section about Forbek and his castle.
After attending St. Andrews University, he went abroad as travelling tutor or companion, with William Beckford and some other gentlemen.
At Christmas, 1781, Loutherbourg mounted a spectacle at a party in the Egyptian Hall at Fonthill for William Beckford, promising (according to Beckford) to "present a mysterious something that the eye has not seen or heart of man conceived ".
The park is on the site of the Roaring River Estate which belonged to the Beckford family: Peter Beckford, William Beckford.
Hundreds of genre author entries are provided, including: William Beckford by E.F. Bleiler, Ambrose Bierce and Algernon Blackwood by Jack Sullivan, Ramsey Campbell by Robert Hadji, Robert W. Chambers by T. E. D. Klein, James Herbert by Ramsey Campbell, Shirley Jackson by Sullivan, Stephen King by Don Herron, Arthur Machen by Klein, Ann Radcliffe by Devendra P. Varma, and Peter Straub by Patricia Skarda.