Vincent O'Sullivan (November 28, 1868 – July 18, 1940) was an American-born short story writer, poet and critic.
He was a friend of Oscar Wilde (to whom in his disgrace he was often generous), Leonard Smithers, Aubrey Beardsley and other fin-de-siècle figures.
It contains the pact-with the devil story "The Bargain of Rupert Orange", and The Business of Madame Jahn and "My Enemy and Myself", which both feature reanimated corpses.
[3] Robert Aickman wrote of O'Sullivan that: [his short story] "When I Was Dead" is a very rictus or spasm of guilt; sudden and shattering.
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.