Fitz-James O'Brien

Fitz-James O'Brien Fitz-James O'Brien
(1828-1862)

Called "a Poe in the minor mode" and "the preeminent writer of supernatural stories of his time," Fitz-James O'Brien is best remembered for two or three widely anthologized stories that border on science fiction and for a supernatural poem.

Mullen's caricature of Fitz-James O'Brien recruiting for the Union Army
Reproduced from Poems and Stories (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1881), ed. William Winter.

Biography: Irish Bohemian, American Fantasist

Bibliography: Works By and About O'Brien

Online Texts by O'Brien

Texts by O'Brien at BlackMask.com

Includes his major works.

Demon of the Gibbet (poem)

Kane (poem)

Our Young Authors - Melville (review) [ascribed],

from Putnam's Monthly Magazine, February 1853

Our Authors and Authorship, Melville and Curtis (review) [ascribed],

from Putnam's Monthly Magazine, April 1857

Fitz-James O'Brien Page. Two critical pieces. (reviews)

Fitz Hugh Ludlow by Don Dulchinos; author, friend of O'Brien.
Guy de Maupassant's story "The Horla" (a.k.a. "The Trip of the Horla", possibly inspired by O'Brien's "What Was It?" (The Literature Network).

First posted: July 27, 1996
Last updated: October 19, 2004

Selected Authors of Supernatural Horror

Ambrose Bierce	H.P. Lovecraft	Edgar A. Poe
Algernon Blackwood	Arthur Machen	M. P. Shiel
Lord Dunsany	Fitz-James O'Brien	Clark Ashton Smith
William Hope Hodgson	Other Links	Photo Gallery

Alan Gullette, Oakland, California. Email: alang@alangullette.com