Fitz-James O’Brien is almost certainly the only Irish speculative fiction writer to have died of injuries suffered in the American Civil War. Cork born, he emigrated to the US in his mid twenties and started writing for publications such as Harpers soon after arriving. Having at one time served in the British army it is perhaps no surprise that he enlisted in the 7th regiment of the New York National Guard, soon after the Civil War began. He was shot in the arm during a skirmish in February 1862 and having contracted tetanus in the wound, died in Cumberland, Maryland a month or so later.
His speculative fiction reputation rests upon a number of short stories, the most well known of which is The Diamond Lens (1858). A curious mix of microscopy primer, Poe and Dr. Seuss, with a dash of the gleeful anti-Semitism that marks it of its time thrown in for good measure, it tells the tale of self-taught microscopist Linley, who obtains the design of the ultimate lens from Leeuwenhoek, no less, via a séance. When opportunity knocks, he coldly murders Jewish jeweller Simon to obtain the large diamond he owns, covering his tracks via a locked room subterfuge. He then constructs the eponymous lens and with the resulting instrument, discovers the world of a microscopic ‘woman,’ whom he names Animula. Needless to say, he becomes obsessed and it all ends badly.
His other stories include What Was It (1859) – one of the very first treatments of invisibility; From Hand to Mouth (1858) which critic Sam Moskowitz called “the single most striking example of surrealistic fiction to pre-date Alice in Wonderland;” the Lovecraftian The Lost Room (1858), which plays out a bit like The Outsider in reverse and last but not least, The Wondersmith (1859). This egregiously racist, madcap yarn, tells of a group of Grinch-like super villains who plan to take over the United States at Christmas by killing all the children with animated, envenomed toys. It reminded me of Paul Feval’s Les Habits Noirs series which dates from 1863. One wonders if Feval knew of O’Briens tale.
O’Brien’s early death undoubtedly robbed the literary world of someone who could have gone on to write much more in the vein of Poe and Lovecraft. There is plenty of evidence from his few stories that in his treatments of obsession and alienation and in his handling of the tropes of horror, the policier and science fiction that O’Brien would have matched them in what he achieved.
Like A Garden No-one is Allowed to See 