Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814–1873) was born in Dublin into a literary family — his great-uncle was the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan — and read law at Trinity College Dublin before turning to journalism and fiction. He owned and edited the Dublin University Magazine from 1861, serialising much of his own work there before revising it for London publication, and became the leading ghost-story writer of the Victorian era. His novels include The House by the Churchyard (1863) and Uncle Silas (1864); Carmilla appeared in 1872 as part of his story collection In a Glass Darkly.