Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (August 28, 1820 – February 7, 1873), often referred to as Sheridan Le Fanu, was an Irish writer of mysteries and Gothic tales who was a leading writer of ghost stories in the 19^th century, best known for Uncle Silas, Carmilla, and The House by the Churchyard. He was born in Dublin into a family with a literary background. His father was a clergyman in the Church of Ireland who moved the family to Abington, County Limerick and experienced constant financial problems.  Sheridan studied law at Trinity College but never practiced, turning instead to journalism, writing stories and owning several newspapers.  His early stories, later collected as The Purcell Papers, were set in Ireland and contain no small measure of gloom, supernatural visitations, madness and suicide.  He turned to historical novels and “sensation fiction” popular in the mid-1800’s. In 1861 he became editor of the Dublin University Magazine, where much of his work was serialized before publication in England.  He was a meticulous craftsman who brought considerable artistry to setting and narration to create “the mysterious atmosphere in which horror darkly breeds”.  He is regarded by many as the most skillful writer of supernatural fiction in the English.