Bram Stoker

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Bram Stoker
Dark romanticism
Notable worksDracula
Spouse
​
(m. 1878)​
Children1
Signature

Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is best known for writing the 1897

Sir Henry Irving and business manager of the West End's Lyceum Theatre
, which Irving owned.

In his early years, Stoker worked as a theatre critic for an Irish newspaper, and wrote stories as well as commentaries. He also enjoyed travelling, particularly to Cruden Bay in Scotland where he set two of his novels. During another visit to the English coastal town of Whitby, Stoker drew inspiration for writing Dracula. He died on 20 April 1912 due to locomotor ataxia and was cremated in north London. Since his death, his magnum opus Dracula has become one of the best-known works in English literature, and the novel has been adapted for numerous films, short stories, and plays.[1]

Early life

Stoker was born on 8 November 1847 at 15

Church of Ireland Parish of Clontarf and attended the parish church with their children, who were baptised there.[6]
Abraham was a senior civil servant.

Stoker was bedridden with an unknown illness 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 privately educated at Bective House school run by the Reverend (William Woods).[7][8]

After his recovery, he grew up without further serious illnesses, even excelling as an athlete at Trinity College, Dublin, which he attended from 1864 to 1870. He graduated with a BA in 1870, and paid to receive his MA in 1875. Though he later in life recalled graduating "with honours in mathematics", this appears to have been a mistake.[9] He was named University Athlete, participating in multiple sports, including playing rugby for Dublin University. He was auditor of the College Historical Society (the Hist) and president of the University Philosophical Society (he remains the only student in Trinity's history to hold both positions), where his first paper was on Sensationalism in Fiction and Society.

Early career

Bram Stoker's former home featuring a commemorative plaque, Kildare Street, Dublin

Stoker became interested in the theatre while a student through his friend Dr. Maunsell. While working for the

Irish Civil Service, he became the theatre critic for the Dublin Evening Mail,[10] which was co-owned by Sheridan Le Fanu, an author of Gothic tales. Theatre critics were held in low esteem at the time, but Stoker attracted notice by the quality of his reviews. In December 1876, he gave a favourable review of Henry Irving's Hamlet at the Theatre Royal in Dublin. Irving invited Stoker for dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel where he was staying, and they became friends. Stoker also wrote stories, and "Crystal Cup" was published by the London Society in 1872, followed by "The Chain of Destiny" in four parts in The Shamrock. In 1876, while a civil servant in Dublin, Stoker wrote the non-fiction book The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland (published 1879), which remained a standard work.[7]
Furthermore, he possessed an interest in art and was a founder of the Dublin Sketching Club in 1879.

Lyceum Theatre

Stoker's residence at 18 St Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea, London
Blue plaque at the address

In 1878, Stoker married

Lieutenant-Colonel James Balcombe of 1 Marino Crescent. She was a celebrated beauty whose former suitor had been Oscar Wilde.[11] 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.[12]

The Stokers moved to London, where Stoker became acting manager and then business manager of Irving's

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 busy man. He was dedicated to Irving and his memoirs show 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 travelled the world, although he never visited Eastern Europe, a setting for his most famous novel. Stoker enjoyed the United States, where Irving was popular. With Irving he was invited twice to the White House, and knew William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Stoker set two of his novels in America, and used Americans as characters, the most notable being Quincey Morris. He also met one of his literary idols, Walt Whitman, having written to him in 1872 an extraordinary letter[14] that some have interpreted as the expression of a deeply-suppressed homosexuality.[15][16]

Bram Stoker in Cruden Bay

Slains Castle, Cruden Bay. The early chapters of Dracula were written in Cruden Bay, and Slains Castle possibly provided visual inspiration for Bram Stoker during the writing phase.

Stoker was a regular visitor to Cruden Bay in Scotland between 1892 and 1910. His month-long holidays to the Aberdeenshire coastal village provided a large portion of available time for writing his books. Two novels were set in Cruden Bay: The Watter's Mou' (1895) and The Mystery of the Sea (1902). He started writing Dracula there in 1895 while in residence at the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel. The guest book with his signatures from 1894 and 1895 still survives. The nearby Slains Castle (also known as New Slains Castle) is linked with Bram Stoker and plausibly provided the visual palette for the descriptions of Castle Dracula during the writing phase. A distinctive room in Slains Castle, the octagonal hall, matches the description of the octagonal room in Castle Dracula.[17]

Writings

Commemorative plaque in Whitby, North Yorkshire, the English coastal town frequented by Stoker, and where Count Dracula comes ashore in Dracula

Stoker visited the English coastal town of Whitby in 1890, and that visit was said to be part of the inspiration for Dracula.[18] Count Dracula comes ashore at Whitby, and in the shape of a black dog runs up the 199 steps to the graveyard of St Mary's Church in the shadow of the Whitby Abbey ruins.[19] Stoker began writing novels while working as manager for Irving and secretary and director of London's Lyceum Theatre, beginning with The Snake's Pass in 1890 and Dracula in 1897. During this period, he was part of the literary staff of The Daily Telegraph in London, and he wrote other fiction, including the horror novels The Lady of the Shroud (1909) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).[20] He published his Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving in 1906, after Irving's death, which proved successful,[7] and managed productions at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

Before writing Dracula, Stoker met

Carpathian mountains.[21] However this claim has been challenged by many including Elizabeth Miller, a professor who, since 1990, has had as her major field of research and writing Dracula, and its author, sources, and influences. She has stated, “The only comment about the subject matter of the talk was that Vambery 'spoke loudly against Russian aggression.'" There had been nothing in their conversations about the "tales of the terrible Dracula" that are supposed to have "inspired Stoker to equate his vampire-protagonist with the long-dead tyrant." At any rate, by this time, Stoker's novel was well underway, and he was already using the name Dracula for his vampire.[22] Stoker then spent several years researching Central and East European folklore and mythological stories of vampires
.

The 1972 book In Search of Dracula by

Vlad III Dracula.[23] However, according to Elizabeth Miller, Stoker borrowed only the name and "scraps of miscellaneous information" about Romanian history; further, there are no comments about Vlad III in the author's working notes.[24][25][26]

The first edition cover of Dracula

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 the story, a skill which Stoker had developed as a newspaper writer. At the time of its publication, Dracula was considered a "straightforward horror novel" based on imaginary creations of supernatural life.[20] "It gave form to a universal fantasy ... and became a part of popular culture."[20]

According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, Stoker's stories are today included in the categories of horror fiction, romanticized Gothic stories, and melodrama.[20] They are classified alongside other works of popular fiction, such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which also used the myth-making and story-telling method of having multiple narrators telling the same tale from different perspectives. According to historian Jules Zanger, this leads the reader to the assumption that "they can't all be lying".[27]

The original 541-page typescript of Dracula was believed to have been lost until it was found in a barn in northwestern Pennsylvania in the early 1980s.[28] It consisted of typed sheets with many emendations, 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 remarked: "the most famous horror novel ever published, its title changed at the last minute."[29] The typescript was purchased by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Stoker's inspirations for the story, in addition to Whitby, may have included a visit to

St. Michan's Church in Dublin, and the novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.[30]

Stoker's original research notes for the novel are kept by the

Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia. A facsimile edition of the notes was created by Elizabeth Miller and Robert Eighteen-Bisang
in 1998.

Stoker at The London Library

Stoker was a member of The London Library and conducted much of the research for Dracula there.[31] In 2018, the Library discovered some of the books that Stoker used for his research, complete with notes and marginalia.[32]

Death

Shared urn which contains Stoker's and his son's ashes in Golders Green Crematorium

After suffering a number of strokes, Stoker died at No. 26

tertiary syphilis.[35] His death certificate listed the cause of death as "Locomotor ataxia 6 months", presumed to be a reference to syphilis.[36][37] He was cremated, and his ashes were placed in a display urn at Golders Green Crematorium in north London. The ashes of Irving Noel Stoker, the author's son, were added to his father's urn following his death in 1961. 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. His ashes are still stored in Golders Green Crematorium
today.

Beliefs and philosophy

Stoker was raised a Protestant in the

Home Rule for Ireland brought about by peaceful means. He remained an ardent monarchist who believed that Ireland should remain within the British Empire, an entity that he saw as a force for good. He was an admirer of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, whom he knew personally, and supported his plans for Ireland.[38]

Stoker believed in progress and took a keen interest in science and science-based medicine. Some of Stoker's novels represent early examples of science fiction, such as

Freemason, no evidence has been found of Stoker taking part in Masonic activities in London.[42] The Grand Lodge of Ireland also has no record of his membership.[43]

Posthumous

The short story collection

Universal Studios released Tod Browning's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi
.

Dacre Stoker

Canadian writer Dacre Stoker, a great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, decided to write "a sequel that bore the Stoker name" to "reestablish creative control over" the original novel, with encouragement from screenwriter Ian Holt, because of the Stokers' frustrating history with Dracula's copyright. In 2009, Dracula: The Un-Dead was released, written by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt. Both writers "based [their work] on Bram Stoker's own handwritten notes for characters and plot threads excised from the original edition" along with their own research for the sequel. This also marked Dacre Stoker's writing debut.[44][45]

In spring 2012, Dacre Stoker (in collaboration with Elizabeth Miller) presented the "lost" Dublin Journal written by Bram Stoker, which had been kept by his great-grandson Noel Dobbs. Stoker's diary entries shed a light on the issues that concerned him before his London years. A remark about a boy who caught flies in a bottle might be a clue for the later development of the Renfield character in Dracula.[46]

Commemorations

On 8 November 2012, Stoker was honoured with a Google Doodle on Google's homepage commemorating the 165th anniversary of his birth.[47][48]

An annual festival takes place in Dublin, the birthplace of Bram Stoker, in honour of his literary achievements. The 2014 Bram Stoker Festival encompassed literary, film, family, street, and outdoor events, and ran from October 24 to 27 in Dublin.[49][50] The festival is supported by the Bram Stoker Estate[51] and funded by Dublin City Council and Fáilte Ireland.

Bibliography

Novels

Short story collections

Uncollected stories

Title Date of earliest appearance Earliest appearance Novelisation
"The Crystal Cup" September 1872 London Society (London)
"Buried Treasures" 13 March 1875 and 20 March 1875 The Shamrock (Dublin)
"The Chain of Destiny" 1 May 1875 and 22 May 1875 The Shamrock (Dublin)
"The Dualitists; or, The Death Doom of the Double Born" 1887 The Theatre Annual (London)
"The Gombeen Man" 1889–1890
The People
 (London) 		Chapter 3 of The Snake's Pass
"Lucky Escapes of Sir Henry Irving" 1890
"The Night of the Shifting Bog" January 1891 Current Literature: A Magazine of Record and Review, Vol. VI, No. 1. (New York)
"Lord Castleton Explains" 30 January 1892 The Gentlewoman: The Illustrated Weekly Journal for Gentlewomen (London) Chapter 10 of
Hutchinson
, 1892)
"Old Hoggen: A Mystery" 1893
"The Man from Shorrox" February 1894 The Pall Mall Magazine (London)
"The Red Stockade" September 1894 The Cosmopolitan: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine (London)
"When the Sky Rains Gold" 26 August and 2 September 1894 Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper (London)
"At the Watter's Mou': Between Duty and Love" November 1895 Current Literature: A Magazine of Record and Review, Vol. XVIII, No. 5. (New York) Part of Chapter 2 of The Watter's Mou'
"Our New House" 20 December 1895 The Theatre Annual (London)
"Bengal Roses" 17 and 24 July 1898 Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper
"A Yellow Duster" 7 May 1899 Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper
"A Young Widow" 1899
"A Baby Passenger" 9 February 1899 Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper
"The Seer" 1902 The Mystery of the Sea (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.) Chapters 1 and 2 of The Mystery of the Sea
"The Bridal of Death" 1903 The Jewel of the Seven Stars (London: William Heinemann) Alternate ending to The Jewel of Seven Stars
"What They Confessed: A Low Comedian's Story" 1908
"The Way of Peace" 1909 Everybody's Story Magazine (London)
"The 'Eroes of the Thames" October 1908 The Royal Magazine (London)
"Greater Love" October 1914 The London Magazine (London)

Non-fiction

Articles

Critical works on Stoker

Bibliographies

References

  1. TheGuardian.com
    . 21 April 2014.
  2. ISBN 978-0-306-81098-5
    .
  3. ^ "The dark attraction of a literary landmark". The Irish Times.
  4. ISBN 978-0224044622
    .
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ "Stoker Family Tree" (PDF). 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  7. ^ a b c d Obituary, Irish Times, 23 April 1912
  8. ^ "Bloomsbury Collections – Bram Stoker's Dracula – A Reader's Guide". www.bloomsburycollections.com. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  9. ^ Bram Stoker (1847–1912) Trinity College Dublin Writers by Jarlath Killeen
  10. ^ "Dracula creator Bram Stoker born". www.history.com. A&E Television Networks. 2010. Archived from the original on 7 March 2010. Retrieved 21 October 2022. He then worked for the Irish Civil Service while writing theatre reviews for a Dublin newspaper on the side.
  11. ^ Irish Times, 8 March 1882, p. 5
  12. ^ "Why Dracula never loses his bite". Irish Times. 28 March 2009. Archived from the original on 13 October 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
  13. ^ "Resurrected: Dracula author Bram Stoker's first attempts at Gothic horror". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  14. ^ David J. Skal, Something In The Blood: The True Story Of Bram Stoker, Liveright, 2016, p92-97.
  15. ^ Poletti, Jonathan (4 September 2022). "The queer life of Bram Stoker". medium.com. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  16. S2CID 161888586
    . Retrieved 19 October 2022 – via JSTOR.
  17. ^ Shepherd, Mike (2018). When Brave Men Shudder; the Scottish origins of Dracula. Wild Wolf Publishing.
  18. ^ "How Dracula Came to Whitby". English Heritage. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  19. ^ "Whitby Abbey to be illuminated with bats to mark 125 years of Dracula". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  20. ^ a b c d Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale Research (1998) vol 8. pp. 461–464
  21. ^ "Vampires – Top 10 Famous Mysterious Monsters". Tone.com. 14 August 2009. Archived from the original on 17 August 2009.
  22. ^ ""MY FRIEND ARMINIUS"". www.ucs.mun.ca. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  23. ^ Lizzie Dearden (20 May 2014). "Radu Florescu dead: Legacy of the Romanian 'Dracula professor' remembered". The Independent. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  24. ISBN 978-0786424078
    .
  25. ISBN 978-1465334008
    .
  26. ISBN 978-1317035312
    .
  27. ^ Zanger, Jules (1997). Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture ed. Joan Gordon. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 17–24
  28. ^ John J. Miller (28 October 2008). "What a Tax Lawyer Dug Up on 'Dracula'". WSJ.
  29. ^ Latham, Robert. Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review Annual, Greenwood Publishing (1988) p. 67
  30. ISBN 978-0-7171-2945-4
    .
  31. ^ "The Books That Made Dracula". The London Library. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  32. ^ "Latest News". The London Library. 15 January 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  33. ^ "Bram Stoker". Victorian Web. 30 April 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2008.
  34. ISBN 978-1-84002-431-9
    .
  35. ISBN 978-0-86350-042-8
    .
  36. ISBN 9781554881055
    – via Google Books.
  37. ^ "100 years ago today: the death of Bram Stoker". OUPblog. 20 April 2012.
  38. ^ Murray, Paul. From the Shadow of Dracula: A Life of Bram Stoker. 2004.
  39. ^ "Shadowplay Pagan and Magick webzine – Hermetic Horrors". Shadowplayzine.com. 16 September 1904. Archived from the original on 9 November 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  40. ISBN 978-0-87728-547-2
    .
  41. ISBN 978-0-7432-7325-1
    .
  42. ^ "The Ripper and The Lyceum: The Significance of Irving's Freemasonry". 24 November 2002. Retrieved 4 June 2019. John Pickamp; Robert Protheroug 'The Ripper and The Lyceum: The Significance of Irving's Freemasonry ' The Irving Society website
  43. ^ "Bram Stoker". freemasonry.bcy.ca.
  44. ^ Dracula: The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt
  45. ^ "Overview". www.DraculaTheUnDead.com. Archived from the original on 3 January 2010.
  46. ^ Stoker, Bram. Bram Stoker's Lost Dublin Journal, ed. by Stoker, Dacre and Miller, Elizabeth. London: Biteback Press, 2012
  47. ^ "Bram Stoker's 165th Birthday". www.google.com. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  48. ^ Doyle, Carmel (8 November 2012). "Bram Stoker books: gothic Google Doodle honours Dracula author". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
  49. ^ "Bram Stoker Festival 28–31 Oct 2016, Day & Night Events". Bram Stoker Festival 2015.
  50. ^ "What's on in Dublin – Dublin Events, Festivals, Concerts, Theatre, family events". Visit Dublin. Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  51. ^ "The Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin – 2013 Events". Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  52. ^ "Bram Stoker – Miss Betty". www.bramstoker.org.
  53. ^ "Project MUSE – Login". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2018.

External links

Library resources about
Bram Stoker
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