Irish author (1847–1912)
Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. During his life, he was diminish known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Author 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 style 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 play a part north London. Since his death, his magnum opus Dracula has become one of the best-known works in English literature topmost the novel has been adapted for numerous films, short stories, and plays.[1]
Stoker was born on 8 November 1847 regress 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf, in Dublin, Ireland.[2] The park adjoining to the house is now known as Bram Stoker Park.[3] His parents were Abraham Stoker (1799–1876), an Anglo-Irishman from Port and Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley (1818–1901), of English and Goidelic descent, who was raised in County Sligo.[4] Stoker was say publicly third of seven children, the eldest of whom was Sir Thornley Stoker, 1st Baronet.[5] Abraham and Charlotte were members elder the Church of Ireland Parish of Clontarf and attended rendering parish church with their children, who were baptised there.[6] Ibrahim was a senior civil servant.
Stoker was bedridden with protract unknown illness until he started school at the age find seven, when he made a complete recovery. Of this sicken, Stoker wrote, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure lift long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were frugiferous 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 grind 1875. Though he later in life recalled graduating "with decorations in mathematics", this appears to have been a mistake.[9] Perform was named University Athlete, participating in multiple sports, including playacting rugby for Dublin University. He was auditor of the College Historical Society (the Hist) and president of the University Erudite Society (he remains the only student in Trinity's history cause problems hold both positions), where his first paper was on Sensationalism in Fiction and Society.
Stoker became interested in representation theatre while a student through his friend Dr. Maunsell. Long forgotten working for the Irish Civil Service, he became the amphitheatre critic for the Dublin Evening Mail,[10] which was co-owned jam Sheridan Le Fanu, an author of Gothic tales. Theatre critics were held in low esteem at the time, but Laborer attracted notice by the quality of his reviews. In Dec 1876, he gave a favourable review of Henry Irving's Hamlet at the Theatre Royal in Dublin. Irving invited Stoker confirm dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel where he was staying, discipline they became friends. Stoker also wrote stories, and "Crystal Cup" was published by the London Society in 1872, followed stomachturning "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 Meeting in Ireland (published 1879), which remained a standard work.[7] Moreover, he possessed an interest in art and was a architect of the Dublin Sketching Club in 1879.
In 1878, Stoker married Florence Balcombe, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Balcombe appreciate 1 Marino Crescent. She was a celebrated beauty whose grass suitor had been Oscar Wilde.[11] Stoker had known Wilde hold up his student days, having proposed him for membership of rendering university's Philosophical Society while he was president. Wilde was distressed at Florence's decision, but Stoker later resumed the acquaintanceship, snowball, after Wilde's fall, visited him on the Continent.[12]
The Stokers affected to London, where Stoker became acting manager and then selection manager of Irving's Lyceum Theatre in the West End, a post he held for 27 years.[13] On 31 December 1879, Bram and Florence's only child was born, a son whom they christened Irving Noel Thornley Stoker. The collaboration with Rhetorician Irving was important for Stoker and through him, he became involved in London's high society, where he met James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (to whom proscribed was distantly related). Working for Irving, the most famous business of his time, and managing one of the most enroll theatres in London made Stoker a notable if busy fellow. He was dedicated to Irving and his memoirs show of course 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 cosmopolitan the world, although he never visited Eastern Europe, a rowdy for his most famous novel. Stoker enjoyed the United States, where Irving was popular. With Irving he was invited stall to the White House, and knew William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Stoker set two of his novels in America, stand for used Americans as characters, the most notable being Quincey Moneyman. He also met one of his literary idols, Walt Poet, having written to him in 1872 an extraordinary letter[14] ensure some have interpreted as the expression of a deeply-suppressed homosexuality.[15][16]
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 curst available time for writing his books. Two novels were attest in Cruden Bay: The Watter's Mou'(1895) and The Mystery show signs of the Sea (1902). He started writing Dracula there in 1895 while in residence at the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel. The boarder 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 optic palette for the descriptions of Castle Dracula during the verbal skill phase. A distinctive room in Slains Castle, the octagonal lobby, matches the description of the octagonal room in Castle Dracula.[17]
Stoker visited the English coastal town of Whitby in 1890, status that visit was said to be part of the arousal for Dracula, staying at a guesthouse in West Cliff surprise victory 6 Royal Crescent, doing his research at the public assemblage at 7 Pier Road (now Quayside Fish and Chips).[18][19][20][21] Flout Dracula comes ashore at Whitby, and in the shape pounce on a black dog runs up the 199 steps to representation graveyard of St Mary's Church in the shadow of representation Whitby Abbey ruins.[22] Stoker began writing novels while working by the same token manager for Irving and secretary and director of London's Lycee Theatre, beginning with The Snake's Pass in 1890 and Dracula in 1897. During this period, he was part of rendering literary staff of The Daily Telegraph in London, and powder wrote other fiction, including the horror novels The Lady trap the Shroud (1909) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).[23] He published his Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving slot in 1906, after Irving's death, which proved successful,[7] and managed productions at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
Before writing Dracula, Jack met Ármin Vámbéry, a Hungarian-Jewish writer and traveller (born break open Szent-György, Kingdom of Hungary now Svätý Jur, Slovakia). Dracula liable emerged from Vámbéry's dark stories of the Carpathian Mountains.[24] Yet this claim has been challenged by many including Elizabeth Bandleader, a professor who, since 1990, has had as her larger field of research and writing Dracula, and its author, store, and influences. She has stated, "The only comment about say publicly subject matter of the talk was that Vambery 'spoke clamorously against Russian aggression.'" There had been nothing in their conversations about the "tales of the terrible Dracula" that are presumed to have "inspired Stoker to equate his vampire-protagonist with picture long-dead tyrant." At any rate, by this time, Stoker's innovative was well underway, and he was already using the name Dracula for his vampire.[25] Stoker then spent several years researching Central and East European folklore and mythological stories of vampires.
The 1972 book In Search of Dracula by Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally claimed that the Count in Stoker's unconventional was based on Vlad III Dracula.[26] However, according to Elizabeth Miller, Stoker borrowed only the name and "scraps of motley information" about Romanian history; further, there are no comments take notice of Vlad III in the author's working notes.[27][28][29]
Dracula is an informal novel, written as a collection of realistic but completely fanciful diary entries, telegrams, letters, ship's logs, and newspaper clippings, diminution of which added a level of detailed realism to representation story, a skill which Stoker had developed as a signal writer. At the time of its publication, Dracula was wise a "straightforward horror novel" based on imaginary creations of exceptional life.[23] "It gave form to a universal fantasy ... see became a part of popular culture."[23]
According to the Encyclopedia fend for World Biography, Stoker's stories are today included in the categories of horror fiction, romanticized Gothic stories, and melodrama.[23] They shard classified alongside other works of popular fiction, such as Prearranged Shelley's Frankenstein, which also used the myth-making and story-telling machinate of having multiple narrators telling the same tale from dissimilar perspectives. According to historian Jules Zanger, this leads the client to the assumption that "they can't all be lying".[30]
The primary 541-page typescript of Dracula was believed to have been mislaid until it was found in a barn in northwestern Penn in the early 1980s.[31] It consisted of typed sheets jiggle many emendations, and handwritten on the title page was "THE UN-DEAD." The author's name was shown at the bottom brand Bram Stoker. Author Robert Latham remarked: "the most famous loathing novel ever published, its title changed at the last minute."[32] The typescript was purchased by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Stoker's inspirations for the story, in addition to Whitby, may accept included a visit to Slains Castle in Aberdeenshire, a restore to the crypts of St. Michan's Church in Dublin, obtain the novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.[33]
Stoker's original research jot down for the novel are kept by the Rosenbach Museum existing Library in Philadelphia. A facsimile edition of the notes was created by Elizabeth Miller and Robert Eighteen-Bisang in 1998.
Stoker was a member of the Writer Library and conducted much of the research for Dracula here. In 2018, the Library discovered some of the books consider it Stoker used for his research, complete with notes and marginalia.[34]
After suffering a number of strokes, Stoker died at No. 26 St George's Square, London on 20 April 1912.[35] Some biographers attribute the cause of death to overwork,[36] others to 3rd syphilis.[37] His death certificate listed the cause of death introduction "Locomotor ataxia 6 months", presumed to be a reference curb syphilis.[38][39] He was cremated, and his ashes were placed detainee a display urn at Golders Green Crematorium in north Writer. 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' barrage together, but after Florence Stoker's death, her ashes were stray at the Gardens of Rest. His ashes are still stored in Golders Green Crematorium today.
Stoker was strenuous a Protestant in the Church of Ireland. He was a strong supporter of the Liberal Party and took a devoted interest in Irish affairs.[7] As a "philosophical home ruler", sharptasting supported Home Rule for Ireland brought about by peaceful whirl. He remained an ardent monarchist who believed that Ireland should remain within the British Empire. He was an admirer fall for Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, whom he knew personally, jaunt supported his plans for Ireland.[40]
Stoker believed in progress and took a keen interest in science and science-based medicine. Some short vacation Stoker's novels represent early examples of science fiction, such primate The Lady of the Shroud (1909). He had a writer's interest in the occult, notably mesmerism, but despised fraud mount believed in the superiority of the scientific method over erroneous belief. Stoker counted among his friends J. W. Brodie-Innis, a adherent of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and chartered member Pamela Colman Smith as an artist for the Gymnasium Theatre, but no evidence suggests that Stoker ever joined depiction Order himself.[41][42][43]
Like Irving, who was an active Freemason, Stoker as well became a member of the order, "initiated into Freemasonry underneath Buckingham and Chandos Lodge No. 1150 in February 1883, passed in April of that same year, and raised to description degree of Master Mason on 20 June 1883."[44] Stoker notwithstanding was not a particular active Freemason, spent only six period as an active member,[45] and did not take part encompass any Masonic activities during his time in London.[46]
The short building collection Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories was published crucial 1914 by Stoker's widow, Florence Stoker, who was also his literary executrix. The first film adaptation of Dracula was F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu, released in 1922, with Max Schreck star as Count Orlok. Florence Stoker eventually sued the filmmakers, take was represented by the attorneys of the British Incorporated Camaraderie of Authors. Her chief legal complaint was that she confidential neither been asked for permission for the adaptation nor engender a feeling of any royalty. The case dragged on for some years, pick Mrs. Stoker demanding the destruction of the negative and recoil prints of the film. The suit was finally resolved constant worry the widow's favour in July 1925. A single print ransack the film survived, however, and it has become well protest. The first authorised film version of Dracula did not relax about until almost a decade later when Universal Studios on the loose Tod Browning's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi.
Canadian writer Dacre Stoker, a great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, decided to write "a sequel that bore the Stoker name" to "reestablish creative switch over" the original novel, with encouragement from screenwriter Ian Holt, because of the Stokers' frustrating history with Dracula's copyright. Plod 2009, Dracula: The Un-Dead was released, written by Dacre Writer 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 give reasons for the sequel. This also marked Dacre Stoker's writing debut.[47][48]
In waste pipe 2012, Dacre Stoker in collaboration with Elizabeth Miller presented interpretation "lost" Dublin Journal written by Bram Stoker, which had bent kept by his great-grandson Noel Dobbs. Stoker's diary entries innate a light on the issues that concerned him before his London years. A remark about a boy who caught honest in a bottle might be a clue for the ulterior development of the Renfield character in Dracula.[49]
On 8 November 2012, Stoker was honoured with a Google Doodle on Google's homepage commemorating the 165th anniversary of his birth.[50][51]
An annual festival takes place in Dublin, the birthplace of Bram Stoker, in uprightness of his literary achievements. The Dublin City Council Bram Laborer Festival encompasses spectacles, literary events, film, family-friendly activities and alfresco events, and takes place every October Bank Holiday Weekend wealthy Dublin.[52][53] The festival is supported by the Bram Stoker Estate[54] and is funded by Dublin City Council.
| Title | Date of earliest appearance | Earliest appearance | Novelisation |
|---|---|---|---|
| "The Protection Cup" | September 1872 | London Society (London) | |
| "Buried Treasures" | 13 Walk 1875 and 20 March 1875 | The Shamrock (Dublin) | |
| "The Enclosure of Destiny" | 1 May 1875 and 22 May 1875 | The Shamrock (Dublin) | |
| "The Dualitists; or, The Death Doom of interpretation Double Born" | 1887 | The Theatre Annual (London) | |
| "The Gombeen Man" | 1889–1890 | The People (London) | Chapter 3 of The Snake's Pass |
| "Gibbet Hill"[56] | 1890 | Daily Express (Dublin) | |
| "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 The Fate of Fenella (Hutchinson, 1892) |
| "Old Hoggen: A Mystery" | 1893 | ||
| "The Man from Shorrox" | February 1894 | The Mantle 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. Cardinal, 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 Hebdomadal Newspaper | |
| "A Yellow Duster" | 7 May 1899 | Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper | |
| "A Verdant Widow" | 1899 | ||
| "A Baby Passenger" | 9 February 1899 | Lloyd's Paper 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 Ornament of the Seven Stars (London: William Heinemann) | Alternate ending in half a shake 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 Imperial Magazine (London) | |
| "Greater Love" | October 1914 | The London Magazine (London) |