Dunsany, Edward John Moreton Draz Plunkett, 18th Baron

(1878-1957)

   Born in London of Anglo-Irish parents, he was educated at Eton College and the military academy Sandhurst. He joined the Coldstream Guards and served in the South African War (African themes appear much in his writing) and World War I (as a captain in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers). He was wounded and taken prisoner by the rebels in the Easter week rebellion in Dublin in 1916. His experiences of escaping from the Germans in Greece, where he went as Byron professor of English literature in 1939, are recorded in his poem "A Journey" (1943). Unsuccessful at politics, he devoted himself increasingly to literature-lyric poetry, short stories, and short plays. He was a popular lecturer and broadcaster and was an honorary doctor of literature of Dublin (1940). He died in Dublin. In more than 50 verse plays, novels, short stories and memoirs, he combined imaginative power with intellectual ingenuity to create a credible world of fantasy. Some of his other poems: "On the Safe Side," "Songs From an Evil Wood," "The Deserted Kingdom," "The Memory," "There is No Wrath in the Stars."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Home Book of Modern Verse. Burton Egbert Stevenson, ed. Henry Holt, 1953. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Note: Inniskilling is the correct spelling for the regiment. Enniskillen Castle is the home of the Regimental Museum.