Vincent O'Sullivan

Vincent O'Sullivan (November 28, 1872 - 1940) was an American-born short story writer, poet and critic. Born in New York City to Eugene and Christine O'Sullivan, he began his education in the New York public school system and completed it in Britain. ["Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature". Page 1059. H.W. Wilson, 1973.] His works dealt with the morbid and decadent. He was a friend of such fin-de-siècle figures as Leonard Smithers and Aubrey Beardsley.

Robert Aickman wrote of O'Sullivan [Robert Aickman, Introduction to "The Fourth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories" (1967), p.9] that:

[his short story] "When I Was Dead" is a very rictus or spasm of guilt; sudden and shattering. Vincent O'Sullivan was a master of this dyeing and soaking in guilt. The curious should try to find a copy of his novel, "The Good Girl". The quest is difficult, but the product distinctive. O'Sullivan, having lived a longish life as a more or less well-to-do rentier, in latish middle age found himself ruined, wrote his last book ("Opinions") under terrible conditions, and, dying in Paris, ended anonymously in the common pit for the cadavers of paupers.

Notes

Bibliography

*"Poems" (1896)
*"A Book of Bargains" (1896)
*"The Houses of Sin" (1897) [http://www.archive.org/details/housesofsin00osulrich]
*"The Green Window" (1899) [http://www.archive.org/details/greenwindow00osulrich]
*"A Dissertation Upon Second Fiddles" (1902)
*"Human Affairs" (1907) [http://www.archive.org/details/humanaffairs00osulrich]
*"The Good Girl" (1912)
*"Sentiment and Other Stories" (1913)
*"Aspects of Wilde" (1936)