Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Born in Dublin in 1814 of parents of Huguenot origins, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu studied Law at Trinity College. He devoted himself first to journalism and politics, seeking relief for the vicitims of the Irish famine, before turning to writing full-time after the death of his wife in 1858. Le Fanu's most famous Gothic mystery stories include Uncle Silas, the vampire novella Carmilla, the collection In a Glass darkly and The Wyvern Mystery. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu died in Dublin in 1873.