Sheridan Le Fanu

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was born in Dublin in 1814. A member of a literary family, he was a writer of Gothic literature and is most famous for the mystery novel Uncle Silas. He studied law at Trinity College Dublin, where he contributed short stories to the Dublin University Magazine, and then went on to become a journalist. He was influential in the horror genre, known for the subtle techniques he used to build tension and suspense in his famous ghost stories. Carmilla, published in a collection called In a Glass Darkly in 1872, inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula, shaping the genre of vampire fiction we know today. Le Fanu died in 1873.