M.P. Shiel (Matthew Phipps Shiell) | First Editions

1865 - 1947

Matthew Phipps Shiell (21 July 1865 – 17 February 1947) – known as M. P. Shiel – was a prolific British writer of West Indiandescent. His legal surname remained "Shiell" though he adopted the shorter version as a de facto pen name. In his lifetime, Shiel published over 30 books, including 25 novels and various collections of short stories, essays and poems. He is remembered mostly for supernatural horror and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. The Purple Cloud (1901; 1929) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel, and has been variously described as both a neglected masterpiece, and the best of all Last Man novels. Stephen King has cited Shiel's novel as an influence on his own novel, The Stand.

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