1. Lord Dunsany published more than 90 books during his lifetime, and his output consisted of hundreds of short stories, plays, novels, and essays; further works were published posthumously.
49 Facts About Lord Dunsany
1. 2.
Lord Dunsany worked with W B Yeats and Lady Gregory, and supported the Abbey Theatre and some fellow writers.
3.
Lord Dunsany was a chess and pistol champion of Ireland, and travelled and hunted.
4.
From a historically wealthy and famous family, Lord Dunsany was related to many well-known Irish figures.
5.
Lord Dunsany 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.
6.
Lord Dunsany's mother was a cousin of Sir Richard Burton, and he inherited from her considerable height, being 1.93 metres tall.
7.
Lord Dunsany's schooling was at Cheam, Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, which he entered in 1896.
8.
The young Lord Dunsany returned to Dunsany Castle after war duty, in 1901.
9.
Lord Dunsany was friendly, for example, with George William Russell, Oliver St John Gogarty, and for a time, W B Yeats.
10.
Lord Dunsany socialised at times with George Bernard Shaw and H G Wells, and was a friend of Rudyard Kipling.
11.
In 1910 Lord Dunsany commissioned a two-storey extension to Lord Dunsany Castle, with a billiard room, bedrooms and other facilities.
12.
Lord Dunsany served as a second lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards in the Second Boer War.
13.
Lord Dunsany was well acquainted with W B Yeats, Lady Gregory, Percy French, George "AE" Russell, Oliver St John Gogarty, Padraic Colum and others.
14.
Lord Dunsany befriended and supported Francis Ledwidge, to whom he gave the use of his library, and Mary Lavin.
15.
Lord Dunsany made his first literary tour to the United States in 1919 and further such visits up to the 1950s, in the early years mostly to the eastern seaboard and later, notably, to California.
16.
In 1940, Lord Dunsany was appointed Byron Professor of English in Athens University, Greece.
17.
Olivia Manning's character Lord Pinkrose in her novel sequence the Fortunes of War was a mocking portrait of Dunsany in that period.
18.
In 1947, Lord Dunsany transferred his Meath estate in trust to his son and heir Randal and settled in Kent at his Shoreham house, Dunstall Priory.
19.
Lord Dunsany visited Ireland only occasionally thereafter, and engaged actively in life in Shoreham and London.
20.
Lord Dunsany began a new series of visits to the United States, notably California, as recounted in Hazel Littlefield-Smith's biographical Dunsany, King of Dreams.
21.
In 1957, Lord Dunsany became ill while dining with the Earl and Countess of Fingall at Dunsany, in what proved to be an attack of appendicitis.
22.
Lord Dunsany died in hospital in Dublin, at the age of 79.
23.
Lord Dunsany was buried in the churchyard of the ancient church of St Peter and St Paul, Shoreham, Kent.
24.
Lord Dunsany's funeral was attended by many family members, representatives of his old regiment and various bodies in which he had taken an interest, and figures from Shoreham.
25.
Beatrice survived Lord Dunsany, living mainly at Shoreham and overseeing his literary legacy until her death in 1970.
26.
Lord Dunsany was president of both the Irish Chess Union and the Kent County Chess Association for some years and of Sevenoaks Chess Club for 54 years.
27.
Lord Dunsany's short story The Three Sailors' Gambit is a classic work of suspense that incorporates a strong and unique chess element into its plot.
28.
Lord Dunsany was an avid horseman and hunter, for many years hosting the hounds of a local hunt and hunting in parts of Africa.
29.
Lord Dunsany was at one time the pistol-shooting champion of Ireland.
30.
Lord Dunsany campaigned for animal rights, being known especially for his opposition to the "docking" of dogs' tails, and presided over the West Kent branch of the RSPCA in his later years.
31.
Lord Dunsany enjoyed cricket, provided the local cricket ground situated near Dunsany Crossroads, and later played for and presided at Shoreham Cricket Club in Kent.
32.
Lord Dunsany was a supporter of Scouting for many years, serving as President of the Sevenoaks district Boy Scouts Association.
33.
Lord Dunsany supported an amateur drama group, the Shoreham Players.
34.
Lord Dunsany provided support for the British Legion in both Ireland and Kent, including grounds in Trim and poetry for the Irish branch's annual memorial service on a number of occasions.
35.
Lord Dunsany was a prolific writer of short stories, novels, plays, poetry, essays and autobiography.
36.
Lord Dunsany published over 90 books in his lifetime, not including individual plays.
37.
Lord Dunsany began his literary career in the late 1890s writing under his given name, with published verses such as "Rhymes from a Suburb" and "The Spirit of the Bog".
38.
In 1905, writing as Lord Dunsany, he produced the well-received collection The Gods of Pegana.
39.
Lord Dunsany paid for the publication of the first collection, The Gods of Pegana, earning a commission on sales.
40.
Lord Dunsany carried on writing plays for the theatre into the 1930s, including the famous If, and some radio productions.
41.
Lord Dunsany temporarily reduced his output of short stories, concentrating on plays, novels and poetry for a time.
42.
In 1924, Lord Dunsany published his second novel, The King of Elfland's Daughter, a return to his early style of writing.
43.
Joshi has described these shifts as Lord Dunsany moving on after he felt he had exhausted the potential of a style or medium.
44.
Lord Dunsany was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, 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.
45.
Lord Dunsany was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was an honorary member of the Institut Historique et Heraldique de France.
46.
Lord Dunsany was initially an Associate Member of the Irish Academy of Letters, founded by Yeats and others, and later a full member.
47.
Lord Dunsany found hitherto unknown works, including The Last Book of Jorkens, to the first edition of which he wrote an introduction, and an unnamed 1956 short story collection, eventually published as part of The Ghost in the Corner and other stories in 2017.
48.
Lord Dunsany's manuscripts are collected in the family archive, including some specially bound volumes of some of his works.
49.
Seven boxes of Lord Dunsany's papers are held at the Harry Ransom Center.