Novelist, poet, playwright and short-story writer1878–1957
Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, was a prolific and versatile Irish writer and dramatist particularly notable for his work in fantasy and horror published under his title Lord Dunsany.
Educated at Cheam, Eton and Sandhurst, in 1899 Lord Dunsany inherited both Dunsany Castle and the title that was to become his literary pseudonym. His first published collection of stories, The Gods of Pegana (1904), was hugely influential and is considered a major influence on the work of J. R. R. Tolkein and Ursula K. le Guin. He was also the only writer ever to have a collection edited by W. B. Yeats, whom he knew well.
Dunsany was renowned for the range of his work. Throughout his career he continually amended his style, moving from the lofty tone of his earliest fantasy stories, through the more self-conscious The Book of Wonder (1912), and finally to the more naturalistic settings and descriptions in his later work.
In 1924 Dunsany published the novel The King of Elfland’s Daughter (1924), which inspired Neil Gaiman’s https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/lord-dunsany
