Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (August 28, 1814 - February 7, 1873) was an Irish writer of short stories and novels concerning the strange and supernatural. His work is an early example of the genre of horror fiction.Sheridan Le Fanu was born in Dublin to a noble family. His grandmother Alice Sheridan Le Fanu and her brother, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (J. Sheridan Le Fanu's great-uncle), were both playwrights. His niece, Rhoda Broughton, would become a very successful novelist.Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin, where he was elected Auditor of the Historical Society, and passed the bar 1839. But Le Fanu did not take up the legal profession, instead becoming a journalist. Thenceforth until his death he published stories. From 1861--1869, he edited Dublin University Magazine, which also published many of his works in serial form. He owned several periodicals (including the Dublin University Magazine and the Dublin Evening Mail) in his late life. He died in his native Dublin on February 7, 1873