Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu(28 August 1814 7 February 1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales, mystery novels, and horror fiction. He was a leading ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as ‘absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories’.
Elizabeth Gaskell(born Sept. 29, 1810, Chelsea, London, Eng.died Nov. 12, 1865, near Alton, Hampshire), English novelist, short-story writer, and first biographer of Charlotte Brontë.
Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 12 June 1936), who published under the name M. R. James, was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and of Eton College. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.
Lafcadio Hearn, also called (from 1895) Koizumi Yakumo, (born June 27, 1850, Levkás, Ionian Islands, Greecedied Sept. 26, 1904, kubo, Japan), writer, translator, and teacher who introduced the culture and literature of Japan to the West.
William Sydney Porter, writing as O. Henry, wrote in a dry, humorous style and, as in ‘The Gift of the Magi, ‘ often ironically used coincidences and surprise endings. Released from prison in 1902, Porter went to New York, his home and the setting of most of his fiction for the remainder of his life. Writing prodigiously, he went on to become a revered American writer.
Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865, in Bombay, India. The author is famous for an array of works like ‘Just So Stories’ and ‘The Jungle Book.’ He received the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature.’
Born in Burma (now Myanmar) in 1870, H.H. Munro worked as a journalist before gaining fame as a short story writer under the pen name ‘Saki.’ His works, which include the classic stories ‘Tobermory’ and ‘The Open Window, ‘ offer a satirical commentary on Edwardian society and culture.