LE FANU

le fanu, joseph sheridan (1814-1873), irish journalist and author, was born of an old huguenot family at dublin on the 28th of august 1814. he entered trinity college, dublin, in 1833. at an early age he had given proof of literary talent, and in 1837 he joined the staff of the _dublin university magazine_, of which he became later editor and proprietor. in 1837 he produced the irish ballad _phaudhrig croohore_, which was shortly afterwards followed by a second, _shamus o'brien_, successfully recited in the united states by samuel lover. in 1839 he became proprietor of the _warder_, a dublin newspaper, and, after purchasing the _evening packet_ and a large interest in the _dublin evening mail_, he combined the three papers under the title the _evening mail_, a weekly reprint from which was issued as the _warder_. after the death of his wife in 1858 he lived in retirement, and his best work was produced at this period of his life. he wrote some clever novels, of a sensational order, in which his vigorous imagination and his irish love of the supernatural have full play. he died in dublin on the 7th of february 1873. his best-known novels are _the house by the churchyard_ (1863) and _uncle silas, a tale of bartram haugh_ (1864). _the purcell papers_, irish stories dating from his college days, were edited with a memoir of the author by a. p. graves in 1880.