Joseph Le Fanu
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish journalist and short story writer, most famously known for Carmilla (1872), a vampire tale that predates (and most likely inspired) Bram Stoker’s Dracula by 26 years.
Sheridan was born on August 28, 1814 to Huguenot parents with literary pedigree—his grandmother and his great-uncle were playwrights, and his mother had written a biography of Irish physician and clergyman Charles Orpen. His father, Thomas Philip Le Fanu, was a Protestant clergyman. The...