Bram Stoker

**Abraham "Bram" Stoker** (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish writer. He is  best remembered as the author of the classical and influential vampire novel _Dracula_. A vampire is a kind of monster associated with death and the Devil.

## Life

He was born on 8 November 1847 at 15 Marino Crescent—then as now called "The Crescent"—in Clontarf, a coastal suburb of Dublin, Ireland. His parents were Abraham Stoker (born in 1799; married Stoker's mother in 1844; died on 10 October 1876) and the feminist Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley (born in 1818; died in 1901). Stoker was the third of seven children. Abraham and Charlotte were members of the Church of Ireland and attended the Clontarf parish church (St. John the Baptist) with their children where both were baptised. Until he started school at the age of seven—when he made a complete, surprising recovery—Stoker was sick. During that 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."

After his recovery, he became a normal young man. He excelled as an athlete at Trinity College, Dublin (1864–70), from which he was graduated with honors 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". In 1876, while he was employed as a civil servant in Dublin, he wrote theater reviews for _The Dublin Mail_, a newspaper partly owned by fellow horror writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. His interest in theater led to a lifelong friendship with the English actor Henry Irving. In 1878 Stoker married Florence Balcombe, a celebrated beauty whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde. The couple moved to London, where Stoker became business manager of Irving's Lyceum Theater, a post he held for 27 years. The collaboration with Irving was very important for Stoker. Through him he became involved in London's high society, where he met, among other notables, James McNeil Whistler and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the course of Irving's tours he got the chance to travel around the world.

They had one son, Irving Noel Stoker, who was born on 31 December 1879.

## Dracula

He earned his money by writing a large number of sensational novels, his most famous being the vampire tale _Dracula_ which he published in 1897. Before writing _Dracula_, Stoker spent eight years researching European folklore and stories of vampires. _Dracula_ is an epistolary novel, written as collection of diary entries, telegrams, and letters from the characters, as well as fictional clippings from the Whitby and London newspapers. Stoker's inspiration for the story was a visit to Slains Castle near Aberdeen. The bleak spot provided an excellent backdrop for his creation.

_Dracula_ has been the basis for countless movies and plays. The first was _Nosferatu_ directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and starring 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 movie. The suit was finally resolved in the widow's favour in July 1925. Some copies of the movie survived, however, and _Nosferatu_ is now widely regarded as an innovative classic. The most famous movie version of _Dracula_ is the 1931 production starring Bela Lugosi and which spawned several sequels that had little to do with Stoker's novel.

Stoker wrote several other novels dealing with horror and supernatural themes, but none of them achieved the lasting fame or success of _Dracula_. His other novels include _The Snake's Pass_ (1890), _The Jewel of Seven Stars_ (1903), and _The Lair of the White Worm_ (1911).

### 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)
- _Snowbound: The Record of a Theatrical Touring Party_ (1908)
- _The Lady of the Shroud_ (1909)
- _Lair of the White Worm_ (1911)

### Short story collections

- _Under the Sunset_ (1881)
- _Dracula's Guest_ (1914) Published posthumously by Florence Stoker

### Uncollected stories

- _Bridal of Dead_ (alternative ending to _The Jewel of Seven Stars_)
- _Buried Treasures_
- _The Chain of Destiny_
- _The Crystal Cup_ (1872)- published by 'The London Society'
- _The Dualitists; or, The Death Doom of the Double Born_
- _The Fate of Fenella_ (1892), Chapter 10, "Lord Castleton Explains" only.
- _The Gombeen Man_
- _In the Valley of the Shadow_
- _The Man from Shorrox_'
- _Midnight Tales_
- _The Red Stockade_
- _The Seer_

### 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)

## Related pages

- _Blood from the Mummy's Tomb_ (film adaptation of _The Jewel of Seven Stars_)
- Bram Stoker Award

## Other websites

- Bram Stoker cultural Heritage visitor centre , Dublin
- Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula"
- h2g2 article on Bram Stoker
- Bram Stoker's brief biography and works
- The Lair of the White Worm - dedicated site (film and novel)
- 20 Common Misconceptions and Other Miscellaneous Information

## Online texts

- Full text of Dracura at the Project Gutenberg in various formats.
- Bram Stoker Full text and PDF versions of most of Stoker's works.
- Bram Stoker Books in HTML format.

## Infobox (writer)

- **name**: Bram Stoker
- **image**: Bram Stoker 1906.jpg
- **imagesize**: 200px
- **caption**: Photograph of Stoker ca. 1906
- **birth place**: Clontarf, Dublin, Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland
- **birth name**: Abraham Stoker
- **death place**: London, England
- **occupation**: Novelist
- **nationality**: Irish
- **citizenship**: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British
- **period**: Victorian era, Edwardian Era
- **genre**: Gothic fiction, Gothic, Romance novel, Romantic Fiction
- **movement**: Dark romanticism
- **notableworks**: _Dracula_
- **spouse**: Florence Balcombe
- **children**: Irving Noel Thornley Stoker
- **relatives**: father: Abraham Stoker
mother: Charlotte Stoker, Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley
- **signature**: Bram Stoker signature.svg