"No one can imitate Dunsany, and probably everyone who's ever read him has tried." -- C. L. Moore, letter to H. P. Lovecraft, 1936 The chief of the gods has created the world and fallen asleep to the beat of his drummer, leaving the small gods to play games with the lives of mortals. Dunsany's earliest work comes in an easily digestible collection of short stories. You'll find the literary origin of many fantasy concepts that are commonplace today, which influenced writers like Lovecraft and Tolkien.