Source: Wikipedia

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany (24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957) was an Irish writer and dramatist notable for his work in fantasy and horror.

Edward Plunkett was the son of John William Plunkett, 17th Baron Dunsany (1853–1899) and his wife Ernle Elizabeth Ernle-Erle Drax, née Grosvenor. He was a kinsman of the Roman Catholic Saint Oliver Plunkett, the martyred Archbishop of Armagh. The Countess of Fingall, wife of Dunsany's cousin the Earl of Fingall, wrote a best-selling account of the life of the aristocracy in Ireland in the late 19th century and early 20th century, called Seventy Years Young.

Lord Dunsany was educated at Eton and Sandhurst. He served as an officer in the Coldstream Guards during the Boer War and in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in World War I. He was a keen huntsman and sportsman, and was at one time the chess and pistol champion of Ireland.

His most notable fantasy short stories were published in collections from 1905 to 1919: he had to pay for publication of the first, The Gods of Pegāna. The stories were set within an invented world, with its own gods, history and geography. His significance within the genre of fantasy writing is considerable.

His inclusion in a detective site is due to one of his last works, The Little Tales of Smethers (1952), which was selected as one of the Haycraft-Queen cornerstones.

Bibliography

The Little Tales of Smethers (1952)