Lord Dunsany
Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany, FRSL FRGS (/dʌnˈseɪni/; 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,[2][4][a] and his output consisted of hundreds of short stories, plays, novels, and essays.[1] 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,[1] 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.[6]
"Edward Plunkett" redirects here. For other people named Edward Plunkett, see Edward Plunkett (disambiguation). For the peerage title, see Baron of Dunsany.
The Lord Dunsany
Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett
24 July 1878
London, England
25 October 1957 (aged 79)
Dublin, Ireland
Writer (short story writer, playwright, novelist, poet)
English
Irish, British
Crime, high fantasy, horror, science fiction, weird fiction
Early short story collections, The King of Elfland's Daughter, The Gods of Pegāna
1
John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany (father)
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.
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Edward Plunkett (Dunsany), known to his family as "Eddie", was the first son of John William Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany (1853–1899), and his wife, Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor Ernle-Erle-Drax (née Burton) (1855–1916).[7]
From a historically wealthy and famous family, Lord Dunsany was related to many well-known Irish figures. He was a kinsman of the Catholic Saint Oliver Plunkett, the martyred Archbishop of Armagh whose ring and crozier head are still held by the Dunsany family. He was also related to the prominent Anglo-Irish unionist and later nationalist / Home Rule politician Sir Horace Plunkett and George Count Plunkett, Papal Count and Republican politician, father of Joseph Plunkett, executed for his part in the 1916 Rising.
His mother was a cousin of Sir Richard Burton, and he inherited from her considerable height, being 1.93 metres tall (6'4"). 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.
Plunkett's only adult sibling, a younger brother, from whom he was estranged from about 1916, for reasons not fully clear but connected to his mother's will, was the noted British naval officer Sir Reginald Drax. Another younger brother died in infancy.
Edward Plunkett grew up at the family properties, notably Dunstall Priory in Shoreham, Kent, and Dunsany Castle in County Meath, but also in family homes such as in London. His schooling was at Cheam, Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, which he entered in 1896.
Memberships, awards and honours[edit]
Lord Dunsany was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature,[30] a member and at one point President of the Authors' Society, and likewise President of the Shakespeare Reading Society from 1938 until his death in 1957, when he was succeeded by Sir John Gielgud.[31]
Dunsany was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an honorary member of the Institut Historique et Heraldique de France. He was initially an Associate Member of the Irish Academy of Letters, founded by Yeats and others, and later a full member. At one of their meetings, after 1922, he asked Seán Ó Faoláin, who was presiding, "Do we not toast the King?" Ó Faoláin replied that there was only one toast: to the Nation; but after it was given and O'Faolain had called for coffee, he saw Dunsany, standing quietly among the bustle, raise his glass discreetly, and whisper "God bless him".[32]
The Curse of the Wise Woman received the Harmsworth Literary Award in Ireland.
Dunsany received an honorary doctorate, D.Litt., from Trinity College Dublin, in 1940.
In 1950, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature by Irish PEN, citing his fiction, poetry, and support for younger writers. However, after a negative appraisal by Per Hallström, the Nobel Committee did not consider him for the prize,[33] which was won that year by Bertrand Russell.[34]
