M. P. (Matthew Phipps) Shiel

Born on July 21, 1865, on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, Matthew Phipps Shiell later published as M. P. Shiel after shortening his surname. He moved to Britain as a young man and built a reputation for vivid, highly stylized fiction that mixed decadence, mystery, horror, and early science fiction.

Shiel wrote novels, serials, and short stories, and he is especially associated with supernatural fiction and scientific romance. Among his best-known works are Prince Zaleski, a collection featuring an eccentric detective, and The Purple Cloud (1901), an apocalyptic novel that remained his most widely reprinted book.

His writing can be lush, intense, and unusual, which is part of why later readers and critics kept returning to it. Though not always a mainstream name, Shiel has had a lasting place in the history of weird fiction and early speculative literature. He died on February 17, 1947.