Letter from Lord Dunsany to Patrick Mahony [c 1930s-1950s]

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, who published under the name Lord Dunsany, was an author and poet in the early to mid-twentieth century.  Publishing his first book, The Gods of Pegana, in 1905, Dunsany went on write for nearly five decades, helping to establish the distinct label of fantasy literature as we know it today.  Story collections like A Dreamer’s Tales (1910), and novels like The King of Elfland’s Daughter (1924), and The Charwoman’s Shadow (1926) were considered unusual for their time (before the classification of fantasy existed) but are now recognized as vital contributions to literature.  Gods, Men and Ghosts (1972) was a later collection of his best supernatural fiction (see image). During his career, Dunsany had close, collaborative friendships with writers such as W.B. Yeats and Rudyard Kipling.

Dunsany’s reputation lives on today primarily through those who cite him as an important influence.  A Dreamer’s Tales was particularly influential on JRR Tolkien, HP Lovecraft, and Ursula Le Guin.  Others who cite Dunsany’s influence include Jorge Luis Borges, Neil Gaiman, and filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro. 

In addition to his writing, Dunsany was an accomplished chess player, and even invented an asymmetric version of chess called Dunsany’s chess.   He was both a chess and pistol-shooting champion in Ireland. He died in 1957 at the age of 79.  

Patrick Mahony, a friend and literary assistant to Lord Dunsany, donated many materials to the University of Southern Mississippi in the 1970’s.  Among these materials are correspondence and publications of Lord Dunsany, including a few inscribed copies of first editions. 

The above image is a letter written from Dunsany to Mahony from Ming Manor, the California home of Hazel Littlefield Smith, the biographer of Dunsany. The text of the letter reads:

Dear Mahony, Many thanks for your letter & for sending some of mine.  I am greatly enjoying my stay in this beautiful state.  My wife is sure to have answered your letter by now unless yours went astray, or perhaps her answer did.  I will ask her if she got it, & when she answered it.  Looking forward to seeing your shortly.  I am most grateful to you for having brought me here. Yours Ever, Dunsany 

For more information on our collections relating to Dunsany, see the Patrick Mahony Collection.

Text by Andrew Rhodes, Special Collections Specialist.