Harle Oren Cummins

Very little is firmly documented about Harle Oren Cummins beyond the dates commonly attached to his name, 1859–1931, and his authorship of Welsh Rarebit Tales (1902). That scarcity has given him a faintly mysterious place in literary history.

Welsh Rarebit Tales is a collection of strange, dreamlike stories, introduced as the outgrowth of a literary club experiment in which members read pieces inspired by heavy suppers and the uneasy sleep that followed. The result is a run of vivid nightmares and fantastical episodes that blend humor, anxiety, and imaginative speculation.

Though Cummins does not seem to have left a large published body of work, this book endured. It has been preserved by Project Gutenberg and listed by major library catalogs, and it is often remembered for its unusual premise and its place on the edge of early fantasy and science fiction.