Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford -> (24 September 1717 - 2 March 1797), was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and politician. 1764 published The Castle of Otranto -> written in a manner akin to Surrealist automatic writing. It was widely acclaimed as the first Gothic novel and was one of the inspirations for Julien Gracq's Au chateau d'Argol.