Bram Stoker

Source

• Born: 8 November 1847
• Birthplace: Clontarf, Ireland
• Died: 20 April 1912
• Best Known As: The author who wrote Dracula

Abraham (Bram) Stoker wrote the classic 1897 vampire novel Dracula. Raised in a Dublin suburb and educated at Trinity College, Stoker first worked as a civil servant while writing theater reviews and short stories on the side. He left Dublin for London in 1878 to take a position managing the Lyceum Theatre for actor Sir Henry Irving. During his long career at the Lyceum he wrote many fantastic stories and novels, cementing his fame with Dracula. While it wasn't the first vampire story ever written, Stoker's tale made vampires famous, and his creepy Count Dracula became the model for the popular movie Draculas of the 20th century (especially the iconic 1931 version played by Bela Lugosi). Stoker's other books include The Snake's Pass (1890), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1904) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).

Stoker married the actress Florence Balcombe in 1878, before moving with her to London that year. Their son, Irving, was born in 1879.

For more information on Bram Stoker, visit Britannica.com.

Bram Stoker (1847-1912) is best known as the author of "Dracula" (1897), one of the most famous horror novels of all time.

Abraham Stoker was born in Clontarf, Ireland in 1847. He was a sickly child, bedridden for much of his boyhood. As a student at Trinity College, however, he excelled in athletics as well as academics, and graduated with honors in mathematics in 1870. He worked for ten years in the Irish Civil Service, and during this time contributed drama criticism to the Dublin Mail. His glowing reviews of Henry Irving's performances encouraged the actor to seek him out. The two became friends, and in 1879 Stoker became Irving's manager. He also performed managerial, secretarial, and even directorial duties at London's Lyceum Theatre. Despite an active personal and professional life, he began writing and publishing novels, beginning with The Snake's Pass in 1890. Dracula appeared in 1897. Following Irving's death in 1905, Stoker was associated with the literary staff of the London Telegraph and wrote several more works of fiction, including the horror novels The Lady of the Shroud (1909) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911). He died in 1912.

Although most of Stoker's novels were favorably reviewed when they appeared, they are dated by their stereotyped characters and romanticized Gothic plots, and are rarely read today. Even the earliest reviews frequently decry the stiff characterization and tendency to melodrama that flaw Stoker's writing. Critics have universally praised, however, his beautifully precise place descriptions. Stoker's short stories, while sharing the faults of his novels, have fared better with modern readers. Anthologists frequently include Stoker's stories in collections of horror fiction. "Dracula's Guest," originally intended as a prefatory chapter to Dracula, is one of the best known.

Dracula is generally regarded as the culmination of the Gothic vampire story, preceded earlier in the nineteenth century by Dr. William Polidori's "The Vampyre," Thomas Prest's Varney the Vampyre, J. S. Le Fanu's Carmilla, and Guy de Maupassant's "Le Horla." A large part of the novel's initial success was due, however, not to its Gothicism but to the fact, noted by Daniel Farson, that "to the Victorian reader it must have seemed daringly modern." An early reviewer of Dracula in the Spectator commented that "the up-to-dateness of the book - the phonograph diaries, typewriters, and so on - hardly fits in with the mediaeval methods which ultimately secure the victory for Count Dracula's foes." Stoker utilized the epistolary style of narrative that was characteristic of Samuel Richardson and Tobias Smollett in the eighteenth century, and that Wilkie Collins further refined in the nineteenth. The narrative, comprising journal entries, letters, newspaper clippings, a ship's log, and phonograph recordings, allowed Stoker to contrast his characters' actions with their own explications of their acts.

Some early critics noted the "unnecessary number of hideous incidents" which could "shock and disgust" readers of Dracula. One critic even advised keeping the novel away from children and nervous adults. Initially, Dracula was interpreted as a straightforward horror novel. Dorothy Scarborough indicated the direction of future criticism in 1916 when she wrote that "Bram Stoker furnished us with several interesting specimens of supernatural life always tangled with other uncanny motives." In 1931 Ernest Jones, in his On the Nightmare, drew attention to the theory that these "other uncanny motives" involve repressed sexuality. Critics have since tended to view Dracula from a Freudian psychosexual standpoint; however, the novel has also been interpreted from folkloric, political, feminist, medical, and religious points of view.

Today the name of Dracula is familiar to many people who may be wholly unaware of Stoker's identity, though the popularly held image of the vampire bears little resemblance to the demonic being that Stoker depicted. Adaptations of Dracula in plays and films have taken enormous liberties with Stoker's characterization. A resurgence of interest in traditional folklore has revealed that Stoker himself did not conform to established vampire legend. Yet Dracula has had tremendous impact on readers since its publication. Whether Stoker evoked a universal fear, or as some modern critics would have it, gave form to a universal fantasy, he created a powerful and lasting image that has become a part of popular culture.

Further Reading

Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, Volume 5: Late Victorian and Edwardian Writers, 1890-1914, Gale, 1991, pp. 310-16.

Farson, Daniel, The Man Who Wrote Dracula: A Biography of Bram Stoker, Joseph, 1975, St. Martin's, 1976.

Glut, Donald F., The Dracula Book, Scarecrow Press, 1975.

Leatherdale, Clive, Dracula: The Novel and the Legend, Aquarian Press, 1985.

Ludlam, Harry, A Biography of Dracula: The Life Story of Bram Stoker, St. Martin's, 1976.

McNally, Raymond T., editor, A Clutch of Vampires, New York Graphic Society, 1974.

McNally, Raymond T., and Radu Florescu, In Search of Dracula:A True History of Dracula and Vampire Legends, Warner, 1976.

Stoker, Bram [Abraham] (1847-1912), novelist. Born in Dublin, he studied at TCD after a sickly childhood, and followed his father into the Civil Service. From 1871 he contributed drama reviews and other pieces to the Dublin Evening Mail. In 1878 he moved to London to become the actor Henry Irving's manager, an arrangement which lasted until Irving's death in 1905. A first novel, The Snake's Pass (1891), is set in Co. Mayo. Dracula (1897), his novel of vampirism, was influenced by Sheridan Le Fanu. It was followed by a steady stream of other publications: Miss Betty (1898), The Mystery of the Sea (1902), and The Jewel of the Seven Stars (1903). The Man (1905) and Lady Athlyne (1908) are, like Miss Betty, romantic novels. In The Lair of the White Worm (1911) a legendary monster returns to prey on 19th-cent. Staffordshire.

Writer of books on occult themes and creator of the deathless vampire Dracula. He was born on November 8, 1847, in Dublin, Ireland. Stoker was named Abraham after his father but later preferred the short form "Bram."

He was a sickly child for some years although quite athletic as a young man. Perhaps his brooding childhood first engendered those imaginative horrors that found expression in his great vampire story and other weird thrillers. His mother had told him tales of the banshee, the Irish fairy whose terrifying wails announce death in the family, and also of the great cholera plague that had claimed thousands of victims in an Ireland ravaged by starvation and foreign occupation.

Stoker studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and became a member of the college's Philosophical Society, later being elected president. His first essay delivered to the society was titled "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society." He was auditor for the Historical Society and also developed a great interest in theater. At age 19 he was electrified by a performance of the great actor Henry Irving, whose company he later joined as a manager.

Stoker graduated with honors in science in 1870 and spent ten uneventful years as a civil servant at Dublin Castle. His first book was the prosaic but quite useful The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions (1879). In 1878 he married Florence Balcombe, a beautiful woman who had been on friendly terms with Oscar Wilde.

After a period as part-time drama critic, newspaper editor, and barrister at law, he became acting manager for Henry Irving, accompanying him on his British and American tours. Stoker was a hardworking manager and faithful friend to Irving for 27 years until Irving's death in 1905.

His masterpiece, Dracula, was written at odd moments and weekends during a busy career. It owed the name of its basic character to chance conversation with the intrepid Hungarian scholar-explorer Arminius Vambéry (1832-1913), who visited Dublin on a lecture tour.

It seems that Vambéry told Stoker about Romanian legends of the bloodthirsty tyrant Prince Vlad Tepes (known as Dracula, or "son of Dracul"). Stoker also researched in libraries in Whit-by and London and perfected his knowledge of the background of the Transylvanian countryside, in which he set his fictional count. Some of the weird atmosphere of his story probably derived from the vampire story Carmilla, written by another Dubliner, Sheridan Le Fanu, and first published in 1871.

In addition to his immortal Dracula, Stoker published other novels and stories: The Snake's Pass (1890), The Watter's Mou' (1895), The Shoulder of Shasta (1895), Miss Betty (1898), The Mystery of the Sea (1902), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1904), The Man (1905), The Gates of Life (1908), Lady Athlyne (1908), Snowbound (1908), The Lady of the Shroud (1909), and The Lair of the White Worm (1911). His volume of short stories Dracula's Guest was published posthumously in 1937; the title story was originally a chapter in the manuscript of Dracula, deleted to shorten the work. He died April 20, 1912. His greatest work, at least to himself, was his biography of his mentor, Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (2 vols., 1906). He also wrote an interesting volume called Famous Impostors (1910).

Bram Stoker's memory and his association with Gothic literature is kept alive by various societies, notably the Bram Stoker Society (c/o David Lass, Hon. Secretary, Regent House, Trinity College, Dublin, 2, Ireland); the Dracula Society (36 Elliston House, 100 Wellington St., London, SE10 QQF, England); The Count Dracula Fan Club (29 Washington Sq. W., New York, NY 10011); and the Transylvanian Society of Dracula (P.O. Box 91611, Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1611).

Sources:

Dalby, Richard. Bram Stoker: A Bibliography of First Editions. London, 1983.

Farson, Daniel. The Man Who Wrote Dracula: A Biography of Bram Stoker. New York: St. Martin's, 1976.

Ludlam, Harry. A Biography of Dracula: The Life Story of Bram Stoker. London: Fireside Press, 1962.

Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1994.

Roth, Phyllis A. Bram Stoker. Boston: Twayne, 1982.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. London: Constable, 1897.

——. Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1914.

Bram Stoker was the author of Dracula the key work in the development of the modern literary myth of the vampire. He was born in Dublin, Ireland and at the age of 16, he entered Trinity College at Dublin University. Stoker joined the Philosophical Society where he authored his first essay, "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society." He later became president of the Philosophical Society and auditor of the Historical Society. He graduated with a bachelor's degree and honors in science (1870) and, as his father before him, went to work as a civil servant at Dublin Castle. He continued as a part-time student at Dublin and eventually earned his master's degree. (1875).

Stoker's favorable impression of British actor Henry Irving, who appeared locally with a traveling drama company, led him to offer his services to the Dublin Evening Mail as a drama critic, without pay. As his reviews began to appear in various papers, he was welcomed into Dublin social circles and soon met the Wildes, the parents of Oscar Wilde. In 1873, he was offered the editorship of a new newspaper, the Irish Echo (later renamed Halfpenny Press), part-time and without pay. The paper did not succeed, and, early in 1874, he resigned. From that point on, Stoker found his major entertainment in the theatre. He also began to write his first pieces of fiction, short stories, and serials, which were published in the local newspapers. His first bit of horror writing, "The Chain of Destiny," appeared as a serial in the Shamrock in 1875.

In 1878, Henry Irving took over the management of the Lyceum and invited Stoker to London as the theatre manager, and the Irving-Stoker partnership was to last until Irving's death in 1905. During these first years in London, Stoker found the time to author his first book of fiction, a collection of children's stories, Under the Sunset, published in 1882. Toward the end of the 1880s, amid his duties at the Lyceum, he increased his writing efforts. The result was his first novel, appeared first as a serial in The People in 1889 and was published in book form the following year. The story of The Snake's Pass centered on the legendary Shleenanaher, an opening to the sea in the mountain of Knockcalltecrore in western Ireland.

In 1890, Stoker began work on what was to become the watershed piece in the development of the literary vampire. Meanwhile, he wrote several short stories and two short novels. The novels, The Watter's Mou and The Shoulder of Shasta, are largely forgotten today. However, his short stories, especially "The Squaw," have survived and are still read by horror enthusiasts.

Stoker's decision to write Dracula seems to have been occasioned by a nightmare, in which he experienced a vampire rising from a tomb. He had read Sheridan Le Fanu 's Carmilla first published in 1872, several years before and had rounded out his knowledge with numerous discussions on the supernatural. To these he added his own research and modeled his main character on a fifteenth-century Transylvanian nobleman. He also decided, probably suggested by Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone, to tell the story through the eyes of several different characters. In the end, the story was told through a variety of documents, from diaries to letters to newspaper clippings.

Published in 1897, there was little to suggest that Stoker considered Dracula more than a good horror story. He received mixed reviews. Some loved it as a powerful piece of gloomy fascination. Others denounced it for its excessive strangeness and complained of its crudity. Very few recognized its importance and compared it to Frankenstein. None realized that Stoker had risen to a literary height to which he would never return-but then very few authors even approached the peak Stoker had attained.

About the time of the publication of Dracula, Stoker led a four-hour reading of its text. This odd event was presented, complete with announcements of the drama version, Dracula, or The Un-dead, to be presented at the Lyceum, to protect the plot and dialogue from literary theft. He had members of the Lyceum company join him in the performance, which was the only dramatic presentation of Dracula during his lifetime.

The year after Dracula was published, Stoker's career took a downward turn. A fire swept through the Lyceum destroying most of its costumes, props, and equipment. Irving's health, already failing, began to worsen. The theatre was turned over to a syndicate and, in 1902, closed for good. Irving died in 1905. Stoker turned to writing and produced a series of novels: Miss Betty (1898), The Mystery of the Sea (1902), The Jewel of the Seven Stars (1903), The Man (1905), and The Lady of the Shroud (1909). Of these, The Lady of the Shroud was possibly the most successful. It reached a twentieth printing by 1934. The Jewel of the Seven Stars would later became the inspiration for two motion pictures: Blood of the Mummy's Tomb (1971) and The Awakening (1980). Of his later writings, Stoker put his most strenuous efforts into his two-volume tribute to his late boss, The Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906). His last books were the nonfiction Famous Impostors (1910), which included some interesting sketches of inherently interesting people, and The Lair of the White Worm (1911). The Lair of the White Worm has enjoyed some success over the years, and was reprinted in popular, inexpensive paperback editions in 1925, 1945, 1961, and most recently in 1989, in conjunction with the British motion picture adaptation directed by Ken Russell in 1992.

Only with great difficulty did Stoker write his last books. In 1905, his health took a decidedly downward turn. That year he had a stroke and soon developed Bright's disease, which affects the kidneys. His condition steadily deteriorated until his death at his home on April 12, 1912. Stoker's biographer Daniel Farson, a great nephew, first suggested that Stoker had died of tertiary syphilis. His conclusions were strongly refuted by Dracula scholar Leslie Shepard , but have recently been reaffirmed by writers Peter Haining and Peter Tremayne.

Possibly the most important of his post-Dracula literary products, a collection of short stories titled Dracula's Guest, and Other Weird Stories (1914), was published by his widow shortly after his death. She claimed that "Dracula's Guest" was actually a chapter deleted from Dracula by the publishers, who felt that the original manuscript was too long.

Stoker was not a wealthy man when he died, and his wife Florence was often hard pressed for money. She inherited Stoker's copyrights and had the periodic income from book sales. Then in 1921, Freidrich Wilhelm Murnau decided to make a film version of Dracula. He adapted it freely by, among other things, changing its setting to Germany and altering the names of several characters. For example, Dracula became Graf Orlock. Although he gave Stoker and the book due credit, Murnau neglected to obtain copyright permission. Florence Stoker sued and finally won. The German court ordered all copies of the film destroyed (although, fortunately, one copy survived). In the meantime, playwright Hamilton Deane obtained permission to adapt the novel to the stage. The play opened in June, 1924 in Derby and, after many performances around England and Scotland, finally opened in London in 1927. Through Deane, Florence Stoker lived to see the success of Dracula first on stage then in the 1931 filming of a revised version of Deane's play starring Bela Lugosi. After her death in 1937, Dracula went on to become the single literary piece most frequently adapted for the motion picture screen, and its lead character the single literary figure most portrayed on the screen, other than Sherlock Holmes. The most recent film adaptation, Bram Stoker's Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola, appeared in 1992. In 1987, the Horror Writers of America instituted a set of annual awards for writings in their field, which they named after Bram Stoker.

Belford, Barbara. Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. 381 pp.
Bleiler, E. F., ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985. 1,169 pp.
Dalby, Richard. Bram Stoker: A Bibliography of First Editions. London: Dracula Press, 1983. 81 pp.
Farson, Daniel. The Man Who Wrote Dracula: A Biography of Bram Stoker. New York: St. Martin, 1976. 240 pp.
Haining, Peter, and Peter Tremayne. The Un-Dead. London: Constable, 1997. 199 pp.
Ludlam, Harry. A Biography of Dracula: The Life Story of Bram Stoker. London: Fireside Press/W. Foulsham & Co., 1962. 200 pp.
Roth, Phyllis. Bram Stoker. Boston: Twayne, 1982. 167 pp.
Shepard, Leslie. Bram Stoker: Irish Theatre Manager and Author. Dublin: Impact Publications, 1994. 20 pp.
---. "Bram Stoker's Dublin." Bram Stoker Society Journal 5 (1993): 9-13.
---. "The Library of Bram Stoker." Bram Stoker Society Journal. 4 (1992): 28-34.
---. "A Note on the Death Certificate of Bram Stoker." Bram Stoker Society Journal. 4 (1992): 34-36.
Shepard, Leslie. "A Note on the Death Certificate of Bram Stoker." The Bram Stoker Society Journal 4 (1992): 35-36.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. London: Constable, 1897. 390 pp. Reprint. New York: Doubleday and McClure, 1899. 378 pp.
---. Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1914. 200 pp. Rept. as: Dracula's Guest. New York: Zebra Books, 1978. 193 pp.
---. The Jewel of the Seven Stars. London: Heineman, 1903. 337 pp. Reprint. New York: Amereon House, 1990. 307 pp.
---. The Lair of the White Worm. London: William Rider and Sons, 1911. 328 pp.
---. Under the Sunset. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1882.190 pp.

Bram Stoker
Photograph of Stoker c. 1912
Born	Abraham Stoker 8 November 1847(1847-11-08) Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland
Died	20 April 1912 (aged 64) London, England, U.K.
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	Irish
Writing period	Victorian era
Genres	Gothic, Romantic Fiction
Literary movement	Victorian
Notable work(s)	Dracula
Spouse(s)	Florence Balcombe
Children	Irving Noel Thornley Stoker
Relative(s)	father: Abraham Stoker mother: Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley
Influences John Polidori, Sheridan Le Fanu
Influenced Stephen King, Anne Rice, Miroslav Šustek

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Early career 3 Lyceum Theatre and later career 4 Writings 5 Death 6 Beliefs and philosophy 7 Posthumous 8 Bibliography 8.1 Novels 8.2 Short story collections 8.3 Uncollected stories 8.4 Non-fiction 8.5 Critical Works on Stoker 9 References and notes 10 External links 10.1 Online texts

Early life

He was born in 1847 at 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf.^[1][2] His parents were Abraham Stoker (1799–1876), from Dublin, and the feminist Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley (1818–1901), who came from Ballyshannon, County Donegal. Stoker was the third of seven children.^[3] Abraham and Charlotte were members of the Church of Ireland Parish of Clontarf and attended the parish church with their children, who were baptised there.

Stoker was bed-ridden until he started school at the age of seven, when he made a complete recovery. Of this time, Stoker wrote, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years." He was educated in a private school run by the Rev. William Woods.^[4]

After his recovery, he grew up without further major health issues, even excelling as an athlete (he was named University Athlete) at Trinity College, Dublin, which he attended from 1864 to 1870. He graduated with honours in mathematics. He was auditor of the College Historical Society and president of the University Philosophical Society, where his first paper was on "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society".

Early career

While still a student he became interested in the theatre. Through the influence of a friend, Dr. Maunsell, he became the theatre critic for a newspaper, the Dublin Evening Mail, co-owned by the author of Gothic tales Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. At a time when theatre critics were held in low esteem, he attracted notice by the quality of his reviews. In December 1876 he gave a favourable review of the actor Henry Irving's performance as Hamlet at the Theatre Royal in Dublin. Irving read the review and invited Stoker for dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel, where he was staying. After that they became friends. Stoker also wrote stories, and in 1872 "The Crystal Cup" was published by the London Society, followed by "The Chain of Destiny" in four parts in The Shamrock. In 1876, while employed as a civil servant in Dublin, Stoker wrote a non-fiction book (The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, published 1879), which long remained a standard work on the subject.^[4]

Bram Stoker's former home, Kildare Street, Dublin, Ireland.

Lyceum Theatre and later career

In 1878 Stoker married Florence Balcombe, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Balcombe of 1 Marino Crescent, a celebrated beauty whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde^[5]. Stoker had known Wilde from his student days, having proposed him for membership of the university’s Philosophical Society while he was president. Wilde was upset at Florence's decision, but Stoker later resumed the acquaintanceship, and after Wilde's fall visited him on the Continent.^[6]

The Stokers moved to London, where Stoker became acting-manager and then business manager of Irving's Lyceum Theatre, London, a post he held for 27 years. On 31 December 1879, Bram and Florence's only child was born, a son whom they christened Irving Noel Thornley Stoker. The collaboration with Irving was very important for Stoker and through him he became involved in London's high society, where he met, among other notables, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (to whom he was distantly related). Working for Irving, the most famous actor of his time, and managing one of the most successful theatres in London made Stoker a notable if very busy man. He was absolutely dedicated to Irving and his memoirs of Irving show how he idolised him. In London Stoker also met Hall Caine who became one of his closest friends - he dedicated Dracula to him.

In the course of Irving's tours, Stoker got the chance to travel around the world, although he never visited Eastern Europe, a setting for his most famous novel. Stoker particularly enjoyed visits to the United States, where Irving was popular. With Irving he was invited twice to the White House, and knew both William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Stoker was a great admirer of the country, setting two of his novels there and using Americans as characters, the most notable being Quincey Morris. He also got a chance to meet one of his literary idols Walt Whitman.

The first edition cover of Dracula

Writings

While working as manager for actor Henry Irving, and as secretary and director of London's Lyceum Theatre, he began writing novels beginning with The Snake's Pass in 1890 and Dracula in 1897. During this period, Stoker was also part of the literary staff of the London Telegraph newspaper and wrote other works of fiction, including the horror novels The Lady of the Shroud (1909) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).^[7] In 1906, after Irving's death, he published his life of Irving, which proved very successful^[4] and managed productions at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

Before writing Dracula, Stoker spent several years researching European folklore and mythological stories of vampires. Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as a collection of realistic, but completely fictional, diary entries, telegrams, letters, ship's logs, and newspaper clippings, all of which added a level of detailed realism to his story, a skill he developed as a newspaper writer. At the time of its publication, it was considered a "straightforward horror novel" based on imaginary creations of supernatural life.^[7] "It gave form to a universal fantasy . . . and became a part of popular culture."^[7]

According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, Stoker's stories are today included within the categories of "horror fiction," "romanticized Gothic" stories, and "melodrama."^[7] They are classified alongside other "works of popular fiction" such as Shelley's Frankenstein^[8]:394 which, according to historian Jules Zanger, also used the "myth-making" and story-telling method of having "multiple narrators" telling the same tale from different perspectives. "'They can't all be lying,' thinks the reader."^[9]

The original 529-page manuscript of Dracula, believed to have been lost, was found in a barn in northwestern Pennsylvania during the early 1980s. It included the typed manuscript with many corrections, and handwritten on the title page was "THE UN-DEAD." The author's name was shown at the bottom as Bram Stoker. Author Robert Latham notes, "the most famous horror novel ever published, its title changed at the last minute."^[8]

Stoker's inspirations for the story, in addition to Whitby, may have included a visit to Slains Castle in Aberdeenshire, a visit to the crypts of St. Michan's Church in Dublin and the novella Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.^[10]

Death

After suffering a number of strokes Bram Stoker died at No 26 St George's Square in 1912.^[11] Some biographers attribute the cause of death to tertiary syphilis^[12]. He was cremated and his ashes placed in a display urn at Golders Green Crematorium. After Irving Noel Stoker's death in 1961, his ashes were added to that urn. The original plan had been to keep his parents' ashes together, but after Florence Stoker's death her ashes were scattered at the Gardens of Rest. To visit his remains at Golders Green, visitors must be escorted to the room the urn is housed in, for fear of vandalism.

Beliefs and philosophy

Stoker was brought up as a Protestant, in the Church of Ireland. He was a strong supporter of the Liberal party. He took a keen interest in Irish affairs^[4] and was what he called a "philosophical Home Ruler", believing in Home Rule for Ireland brought about by peaceful means - but as an ardent monarchist he believed that Ireland should remain within the British Empire which he believed was a force for good. He was a great admirer of Prime Minister William Gladstone whom he knew personally, and admired his plans for Ireland^[13].

Stoker had a strong interest in science and medicine and a belief in progress. Some of his novels like The Lady of the Shroud (1909) can be seen as early science fiction. Like many people of his time Stoker believed in the concept of scientific racism drawing on his belief in Phrenology and these fears form elements in novels like Dracula.^{[citation needed]} This is also reflected in his interest in early theories of criminology - he read both Cesare Lombroso and Max Nordau and used them in Dracula.^{[citation needed]}

Stoker had an interest in the occult especially mesmerism, but was also wary of occult fraud and believed strongly that superstition should be replaced by more scientific ideas. In the mid 1890s, Stoker is rumoured to have become a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, though there is no concrete evidence to support this claim.^[14][15] One of Stoker's closest friends was J.W. Brodie-Innis, a major figure in the Order, and Stoker himself hired Pamela Coleman Smith, as an artist at the Lyceum Theater.

Posthumous

The short story collection Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories was published in 1914 by Stoker's widow Florence Stoker. The first film adaptation of Dracula was released in 1922 and was named Nosferatu. It was directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and starred Max Schreck as Count Orlock. Nosferatu was produced while Florence Stoker, Bram Stoker's widow and literary executrix, was still alive. Represented by the attorneys of the British Incorporated Society of Authors, she eventually sued the filmmakers. Her chief legal complaint was that she had been neither asked for permission for the adaptation nor paid any royalty. The case dragged on for some years, with Mrs. Stoker demanding the destruction of the negative and all prints of the film. The suit was finally resolved in the widow's favour in July 1925. Some copies of the film survived, however and the film has become well known. The first authorized film version of Dracula did not come about until almost a decade later when Universal Studios released Tod Browning's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi.

Bibliography

Novels

Bram Stoker Commemorative Plaque, Whitby, England (2002)

• The Primrose Path (1875)
• The Snake's Pass (1890)
• The Watter's Mou' (1895)
• The Shoulder of Shasta (1895)
• Dracula (1897)
• Miss Betty (1898)
• The Mystery of the Sea (1902)
• The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903)
• The Man (aka: The Gates of Life) (1905)
• Lady Athlyne (1908)
• The Lady of the Shroud (1909)
• The Lair of the White Worm (1911)

Short story collections

• Under the Sunset (1881), comprising eight fairy tales for children
• Snowbound: The Record of a Theatrical Touring Party (1908)
• Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories (1914), published posthumously by Florence Stoker

Uncollected stories

• "The Bridal of Death" (alternate ending to The Jewel of Seven Stars)
• "Buried Treasures"
• "The Chain of Destiny"
• "The Crystal Cup"
• "The Dualitists; or, The Death Doom of the Double Born"
• "Lord Castleton Explains" (chapter 10 of The Fate of Fenella)
• "The Gombeen Man" (chapter 3 of The Snake's Pass)
• "In the Valley of the Shadow"
• "The Man from Shorrox"
• "Midnight Tales"
• "The Red Stockade"
• "The Seer" (chapters 1 and 2 of The Mystery of the Sea)

Non-fiction

• The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland (1879)
• A Glimpse of America (1886)
• Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906)
• Famous Impostors (1910)
• Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula: A Facsimile Edition (2008) Bram Stoker Annotated and Transcribed by Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Elizabeth Miller, Foreword by Michael Barsanti. Jefferson NC & London: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3410-7

Critical Works on Stoker

• William Hughes, Beyond Dracula (Palgrave, 2000) ISBN 0312231369 ^[16]

References and notes

1. ^ Belford, Barbara (2002). Bram Stoker and the Man Who Was Dracula. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press. p. 17. ISBN 0-306-81098-0. 
2. ^ Note, as location has led to multiple edits: The location was, and is, in the Civil Parish of Clontarf. Clontarf extends to the east side of the Malahide Road and borders Marino. Fairview is further west commencing just after Marino Mart.
3. ^ His siblings were: Sir (William) Thornley Stoker, born in 1845; Mathilda, born 1846; Thomas, born 1850; Richard, born 1852; Margaret, born 1854; and George, born 1855
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Obituary, Irish Times, 23 April 1912
5. ^ Irish Times, 8 March 1882, page 5
6. ^ "Why Dracula never loses his bite". Irish Times. last modified 2009. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/0328/1224243595688.html. Retrieved 2009-01-04. 
7. ^ ^{a b c d} Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale Research (1998) vol 8. pgs. 461-464
8. ^ ^{a b} Latham, Robert. Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review Annual, Greenwood Publishing (1988) p. 67
9. ^ Zanger, Jules. Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture ed. Joan Gordon. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press (1997), pgs. 17-24
10. ^ Boylan, Henry (1998). A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition. Dublin: Gill and MacMillan. p. 412. ISBN 0-7171-2945-4. 
11. ^ "Bram Stoker". Victorian Web. last modified 1998. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/stoker/bio.html. Retrieved 2008-12-12. 
12. ^ Gibson, Peter (1985). The Capital Companion. Webb & Bower. pp. 365–366. ISBN 0863500420. 
13. ^ Murray, Paul. From the Shadow of Dracula: A Life of Bram Stoker. 2004.
14. ^ Ravenscroft, Trevor (1982). The occult power behind the spear which pierced the side of Christ. Red Wheel. pp. p165. ISBN 0877285470. 
15. ^ Picknett, Lynn (2004). The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ. Simon and Schuster. pp. p201. ISBN 0743273257. 
16. ^ http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/victorian_studies/v044/44.2glover.html

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bram Stoker

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bram Stoker

• Bram Stoker at the Open Directory Project
• Bram Stoker at the Internet Movie Database
• Bram Stoker at Find a Grave
• h2g2 article on Bram Stoker
• Bram Stoker's brief biography and works
• 20 Common Misconceptions and Other Miscellaneous Information
• The Stoker Dracula Organisation
• Gothic and Stoker Studies at Bath Spa University [1]

Online texts

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Bram Stoker

• Works by Bram Stoker at Project Gutenberg Full text versions of some of Stoker's novels.
• Bram Stoker Online Full text and PDF versions of many of Stoker's works.
• Bram Stoker's Dracula Full text of Stoker's novel Dracula.

v • d • e Dracula Characters of Dracula Count Dracula • Abraham Van Helsing • Jonathan Harker • Mina Harker • Lucy Westenra • Arthur Holmwood • Dr. John Seward • Quincey Morris • Renfield • Brides Other Dracula novels Anno Dracula-series (1992- ) • The Historian (2005)• Bloodline (2005) • Fangland (2007) • Dracula the Un-dead (2009) Stage adaptations Dracula (1924) • Count Dracula (1972) • Dracula, a Musical Nightmare (1974) • Dracula (1980) • Dracula: The Musical? (1982) • Dracula (1995) • Dracula (Czech musical) (1995) • Dracula (1996) • Dracula: A Chamber Musical (1997) • Dracula (2000) • Dracula, the Musical (2004) • Dracula - Entre l'amour et la mort (2006) Film adaptations Nosferatu (1922) • Dracula (1931) • Dracula (1931 Spanish Version) • Drakula İstanbul'da (1953) • Dracula (1958) • Dracula (1968) • Count Dracula (1970) • Dracula (1973) • Count Dracula (1977) • Dracula (1979) • Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) • Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) • Dracula (2002) • Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002) • Dracula (2006) Other films Universal sequels Dracula's Daughter (1936) • Son of Dracula (1943) • House of Frankenstein (1944) • House of Dracula (1945) • Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Hammer sequels The Brides of Dracula (1960) • Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) • Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) • Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) • Scars of Dracula (1970) • Dracula AD 1972 (1972) • The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) • The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) Dracula 2000 Dracula 2000 (2000) • Dracula II: Ascension (2003) • Dracula III: Legacy (2005) Parodies Blacula (1972) • Blood for Dracula (1974) • Love at First Bite (1979) • The Monster Squad (1987) • Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) • Monster Mash (1995) Others Dracula's Death (1923) • Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966) • Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971)•"Buffy vs. Dracula" (2000) • Blade: Trinity (2004) • Van Helsing (2004) • The Batman vs. Dracula (2005) Comics The Tomb of Dracula • Dracula (Marvel Comics) • Dracula (Dell Comics) • Sword of Dracula • Batman & Dracula: Red Rain Video games Castlevania • Dracula (Castlevania) • Alucard (Castlevania) • Bram Stoker's Dracula • Van Helsing See also Dracula in popular culture • Vlad III the Impaler • Articles starting with Dracula

v • d • e Works by Bram Stoker Novels: The Primrose Path (1875) • The Snake's Pass (1890) • The Watter's Mou' (1895) • The Shoulder of Shasta (1895) • Dracula (1897) • Miss Betty (1898) • The Mystery of the Sea (1902) • The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903) • The Man (AKA: The Gates of Life) (1905) • Lady Athlyne (1908) • The Lady of the Shroud (1909) • The Lair of the White Worm (1911) Short story collections: Under the Sunset (1881) • Snowbound: The Record of a Theatrical Touring Party (1908) • Dracula's Guest (1914) Non-fiction: The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland (1879) • A Glimpse of America (1886) • Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906) • Famous Impostors (1910)

Persondata
NAME	Stoker, Bram
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Stoker, Abraham
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Irish novelist
DATE OF BIRTH	8 November 1847(1847-11-08)
PLACE OF BIRTH	Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland
DATE OF DEATH	20 April 1912
PLACE OF DEATH	London, England

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