Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (Lord Dunsany), was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist. He published more than 90 books in his lifetime, including novels, short story collections, plays, and poetry. He is most remembered for his early fantasy works, which influenced a generation of writers including H.P. Lovecraft and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Born in London on 24 July 1878, Dunsany was the eldest son of John William Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany, and Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor Burton. He was educated at Eton College and then at Sandhurst, the Royal Military College, before serving in the Second Boer War. He inherited his title in 1899.

Dunsany's literary career began in the early 20th century. His first book, The Gods of Pegāna, was published in 1905, establishing his unique style of myth-making and fantastical world-building. This was followed by numerous collections of short stories, such as Time and the Gods (1906), The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories (1908), and A Dreamer's Tales (1910).

The Book of Wonder is the seventh book and fifth original short story collection of Lord Dunsany, considered a major influence on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le Guin, and others. It was first published in hardcover by William Heinemann in November 1912.

Lord Dunsany employed the talents of Sidney Sime to illustrate his fantasy short story collections, but The Book of Wonder is unique in that Sime drew the illustrations first, and Lord Dunsany wrote the tales to incorporate them:

The tenth short story of that collection, "How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles," is likely the origin of the term gnoll, used in several later works, notably the Dungeons and Dragons gaming franchise, to describe a humanoid fantasy race.