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(24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957) was an Irish writer and dramatist notable for his work in fantasy and horror.

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Edward Plunkett was the son of John William Plunkett, 17th Baron Dunsany (1853–1899) and his wife Ernle Elizabeth Ernle-Erle Drax, née Grosvenor. He was a kinsman of the Roman Catholic Saint Oliver Plunkett, the martyred Archbishop of Armagh. The Countess of Fingall, wife of Dunsany's cousin the Earl of Fingall, wrote a best-selling account of the life of the aristocracy in Ireland in the late 19th century and early 20th century, called i.

Lord Dunsany was educated at Eton and Sandhurst. He served as an officer in the Coldstream Guards during the Boer War and in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in World War I. He was a keen huntsman and sportsman, and was at one time the chess and pistol champion of Ireland.

His fame arose, however, from his prolific writing of short stories, novels, plays and poetry, reportedly mostly written with a quill pen. Whether or not he did this for his original manus, he transcribed a number of works in this manner and bound them himself. These books are in the family collection.

His most notable fantasy short stories were published in collections from 1905 to 1919: he had to pay for publication of the first, i. The stories were set within an invented world, with its own gods, history and geography. His significance within the genre of fantasy writing is considerable.

The following is the opening paragraph of iThe Gibbelins eat, as is well known, nothing less good than man. Their evil tower is joined to Terra Cognita, to the lands we know, by a bridge. Their hoard is beyond reason; avarice has no use for it; they have a separate cellar for emeralds and a separate cellar for sapphires; they have filled a hole with gold and dig it up when they need it. And the only use that is known for their ridiculous wealth is to attract to their larder a continual supply of food. In times of famine they have even been known to scatter rubies abroad, a little trail of them to some city of Man, and sure enough their larders would soon be full again.

H. P. Lovecraft was greatly impressed by Dunsany after seeing him on a speaking tour of the United States, and Lovecraft's early stories clearly show his influence.

Fletcher Pratt's 1948 novel i

The catalogue of everything that Dunsany wrote during a 50-year writing career is quite extensive, and is especially fraught with pitfalls, owing to two things: first, Dunsany's many original books of collected short stories were later followed by numerous reprint collections, some of which included only previously published stories and nothing new; and second, many later collections bore titles very similar to somewhat different original books.

The following is a partial list compiled from various sources.

Lord Dunsany would often conceive stories while afield hunting, and would return to the manor and draw in his family and servants to re-enact his visions before he set them on paper. Certain concepts, however, he considered to be outright "lies", and he disdained to publish such tales as his own fiction. Lord Dunsany then created Joseph Jorkens, an obese middle-aged raconteur who frequented the Billiards Club in London, and who would tell fantastic stories if someone would buy him a large whiskey and soda. From his tales, it was obvious that Mr. Jorkens had traveled to all seven continents, was extremely resourceful, and was well-versed in world cultures, but always came up short on becoming rich and famous. The i books were of a type popular in fantasy and science fiction writing: the gentlemen's club, where extremely improbable tales are related; they consist of:

Time and the Gods (Collection containing The Gods of Pegāna, Time and the Gods, The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories, A Dreamer's Tales, The Book of Wonder and The Last Book of Wonder). In the story, the main character uses Gorgondy, a wine brewed by gnomes from Huthneth Mountains, to convince a sailor to tell his frightful story of the sea.

The gnomes "sinfully brew" this wine and "keep it wisely from man, until the bargain that [the character] had with their elders all through that autumn night" (as a result of which he got one bottle).