Carmilla

About Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic horror. Born in Dublin Le Fanu was raised in a literary family. His mother a biographer and his father a clergyman encouraged his intellectual development from a young age. He began writing poetry at fifteen and went on to excel at Trinity College Dublin where he studied law and served as Auditor of the College Historical Society. In 1838 shortly before he was called to the bar he began contributing ghost stories to Dublin University Magazine of which he later became editor and proprietor. He embarked on a career as a writer and journalist using his role at the magazine as a means of publishing his own fictional work. Le Fanu made a name for himself as a pioneer of mystery and Gothic horror with such novels as The House by the Churchyard (1863) and Uncle Silas (1864). Carmilla (1872) a novella is considered an early work of vampire fiction and an important influence for Bram Stokers Dracula (1897).