Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan 1814 1873 en 27 67776 Sheridan Le Fanu was born at No. 45 Lower Dominick Steet, Dublin, into a literary family of Huguenot origins. Both his grandmother Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu and his great-uncle Richard Brinsley Sheridan were playwrights. His niece Rhoda Broughton would become a very successful novelist. Within a year of his birth his family moved to the Royal Hibernian Military School in Phoenix Park, where his father, an Anglican clergyman, was the chaplain of the establishment. Phoenix Park and the adjacent village and parish church of Chapelizod were to feature in Le Fanu's later stories. Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin, where he was elected Auditor of the College Historical Society. He was called to the bar in 1839, but he never practised and soon abandoned law for journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin University Magazine, including his first ghost story, entitled "A Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter" (1839). He became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin Evening Mail and the Warder. In 1844 Le Fanu married Susanna Bennett, the daughter of a leading Dublin barrister. In 1847 he supported John Mitchell and Thomas Meagher in their campaign against the indifference of the Government to the Irish Famine. His support cost him the nomination as Tory MP for County Carlow in 1852. His personal life also became difficult at this time, as his wife Susanna suffered from increasing neurotic symptoms. She died in 1858 in unclear circumstances, and anguished excerpts from Le Fanu's diaries suggest that he felt guilt as well as loss. However, it was only after her death that, becoming something of a recluse, he devoted himself full time to writing. In 1861 he became the editor and proprietor of the Dublin University Magazine and he began exploiting double exposure: serializing in the Dublin University Magazine and then revising for the English market. The House by the Churchyard and Wylder's Hand were both published in this way. After the lukewarm reviews of the former novel, set in the Phoenix Park area of Dublin, Le Fanu signed a contract with Richard Bentley, his London publisher, which specified that future novels be stories "of an English subject and of modern times", a step Bentley thought necessary in order for Le Fanu to satisfy the English audience. Le Fanu succeeded in this aim in 1864, with the publication of Uncle Silas, which he set in Derbyshire. In his very last short stories, however, Le Fanu returned to Irish folklore as an inspiration and encouraged his friend Patrick Kennedy to contribute folklore to the D.U.M. Le Fanu died in his native Dublin on February 7, 1873. Today there is a road in Ballyfermot, near his childhood home in south-west Dublin, named after him. Source: Wikipedia Rymer, James Malcom 1814 1884 en 1 1999 James Malcolm Rymer (1814-1884) was a writer of penny dreadfuls and is one of the possible authors of Varney the Vampire (1847). Another possible author was Thomas Preskett Prest. Very little is known about James Malcolm Rymer except that he was a writer of thrillers from the 1840's to the 1860's for the English bookseller and publisher, Edward Lloyd. In the London Directory for 1841 he is listed as a civil engineer, living at 42 Burton Street, and the British Museum catalogue mentions him in 1842 as editing the Queen's Magazine. Rymer's novels appeared in England under his own name as well as under the anagrams Malcolm J. Errym and Malcolm J. Merry. Source: Wikipedia Achard, Amédée 1814 1875 fr 3 1981 Louis Amédée Eugène Achard, né à Marseille le 19 avril 1814 et décédé à Paris en 1875, est un romancier français. Après un court séjour près d’Alger, où il dirige une ferme, puis à Toulouse au cabinet du Préfet, Amédée Achard est journaliste à Marseille au "Sémaphore" pour lequel il écrit nombre d’articles, billets et chroniques. Arrivé à Paris il écrit pour le "Vert-Vert" puis à l’"Entracte", au "Charivari" et enfin pour le journal l’"Époque". Achard écrit énormément pour lui et même pour ses collègues journalistes en panne d’inspiration. Il collabore ensuite au journal satyrique "le Pamphlet". Il provoque en duel un dénommé Fiorentino qui l’avait diffamé. Au cours de ce duel, il est gravement blessé. Encore convalescent il part en Italie avec l’armée française pour couvrir la guerre pour le "Journal des Débats". Achard écrit énormément. En plus de son activité (surabondante) de journaliste, il trouve le temps d’écrire une trentaine de pièces de théâtre et une quarantaine de romans. Amédée Achard est connu pour ses romans de cape et d’épée. On lui prête à tort la paternité de cette expression (en fait Ponson du Terrail l’avait employée un peu avant lui), mais l’écriture du roman éponyme (La cape et l’épée) en 1875 en a fait un des pères du genre. Il était admiré en cela par Alexandre Dumas lui-même. Outre ces romans d’action, Achard a aussi beaucoup écrit de romans populaires de mœurs, considérés aujourd’hui comme des romans à l’eau de rose. Source: Wikipedia