Lord Dunsany
Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (; 24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957), commonly known as
Lord Dunsany, was an
Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist. He published more than 90 books during his lifetime,, 2nd rev. ed., [https://books.google.com/books?id=IOFeAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 p. 27]; , 1st ed., p. 29.}}}} and his output consisted of hundreds of short stories, plays, novels, and essays. He gained a name in the 1910s as a great writer in the English-speaking world. Best known today are the 1924 fantasy novel ''
The King of Elfland's Daughter'', and his first book, ''
The Gods of Pegāna'', which depicts a fictional pantheon. Many critics feel his early work laid grounds for the fantasy genre.
Born in London as heir to an old Irish peerage, he was raised partly in Kent, but later lived mainly at Ireland's possibly longest-inhabited home,
Dunsany Castle near
Tara. He worked with
W. B. Yeats and
Lady Gregory supporting the
Abbey Theatre and some fellow writers. He was a chess and pistol champion of Ireland, and travelled and
hunted. He devised an asymmetrical game called
Dunsany's chess. In later life, he gained an honorary doctorate from
Trinity College Dublin. He retired to Shoreham, Kent, in 1947. In 1957 he took ill when visiting Ireland and died in Dublin of
appendicitis.
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