Biography
Fitz James O’Brien was born October 25, 1826, and died April 6, 1862. He was an Irish-American author, poet, and Civil War soldier and is often credited with helping to pioneer the science fiction genre.
O’Brien grew up in Ireland and moved to London in his young adulthood, at which point he became the editor of a periodical chronicling the 1851 World’s Fair. At the age of twenty-six, he emigrated to the US and soon began writing poems and short tales for publication in numerous papers and magazines. Perhaps his most famous short story, “The Diamond Lens,” he published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1858, and just one year later, his story “What Was It? A Mystery” included one of the first uses of invisibility in fiction.
While serving as a Union soldier in the American Civil War, he became wounded during combat and, after spending several months in a hospital, ultimately died of tetanus. He is remembered by modern readers as a prolific short story writer and an influential voice in Anglophone genre fiction.
Below is a collection of O’Brien’s most notable works. Read at your own discretion—and please, enjoy.
Short Stories by Fitz James O’Brien
The Pot of Tulips (1855)
The Bohemian (1855)
The Diamond Lens (1858)
The Lost Room (1858)
Jubal the Ringer (1858)
The Wondersmith (1859)
What Was It? A Mystery (1859)
The Golden Ingot (1850s)
The Child Who Loved a Grave (1861)
The Raven Post 