Fitz James O'Brien

Fitz-James O’Brien (1826–1862) was an Irish-American writer whose imaginative fiction helped shape early science fiction and weird literature in the mid-nineteenth century. After emigrating to the United States in 1852, he became associated with New York’s literary bohemia and contributed poetry and fiction to major periodicals such as The Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. His most celebrated stories, including “The Diamond Lens,” “What Was It? A Mystery,” and “The Wondersmith,” blended horror, speculative science, and philosophical inquiry in ways that anticipated later developments in fantasy and science fiction. O’Brien died of wounds sustained while serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War.