The Black Vampyre

Uriah Derick D'Arcy seems to all intents to be a literary pseudonym. Why no-one would want to take ownership of this story from its first publication in 1819 has been the subject of several conjectures. The only settled agreement is that it was written by a man and from there the trail runs cold until it was reprinted in 1845 and attributed to Robert C. Sands.But modern opinion now suggests that the true author was his fellow Columbia graduate Richard Varick Dey, a theologian, who's religious career caused him to distance himself from the creation, in those socially difficult times, of this remarkable story.In many respects it was far ahead of its time both in the construction and structure of its story, as an early tale of vampires and, of course, its damnation of slavery.