He Created the
Greatest Anti-Hero
Stoker’s
Dracula is the most adapted villain
in a work of fiction. There are more than 217 Dracula films and 1,000 plus books featuring this famous (or
infamous) character.
He Spent More
Time Writing Dracula than on Any of his Other Books
Bram
Stoker spent 7 years researching European folklore and superstitions before
writing Dracula.
He Never Stood
Up Without Help Until Age 7
The legendary
writer was bed-ridden until the age of seven and needed a little assistance to
walk.
His Mother Was
a Writer and Told Him Tales of Horror
Stoker’s
mom was a writer and she read horror stories to him while he lay sick in bed. This
would later influence his interest in the supernatural and occult many years
after.
He Was the
Business Manager of a Theatre
Stoker
became the business manager of the Lyceum
theatre (owned by Irving) and actor-manager to Henry Irving (one of the most
prominent actors of his time) after a favorable review of the latter’s performance
in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Dracula Was Inspired
by…
Stoker
made no trips to research for his novel, Dracula.
His work was mostly inspired by Emily Gerard’s Transylvania Superstitions.
He Wrote 12
Novels
Stoker
authored 12 novels and published several short story collections. He wrote
about 18 books during his lifetime.
He Had Only
One Kid
Irving
Noel Thornley was the only son of Stoker and Florence. Both father and son’s
cremated remains are joined in one urn. Visitors to the Golders Green Crematorium in London must be escorted to a room
where the urn is housed for fear of vandalism.
His Original
Title for Dracula was The Un-Dead
It has
been suggested that Stoker coined the term, undead.
His novel, Dracula was formerly
titled The Undead. The original 541-page
manuscript was discovered in a barn in Pennsylvania. The title page was
handwritten. It included the title ‘The
Un-Dead’ and the author’s name, Bram
Stoker appeared at the bottom. The co-founder of Microsoft, Paul
Allen, bought the manuscript.
He Worked as a
Journalist
Bram
Stoker was a theater critic, an accomplished athlete, author, biographer,
theater manager and a journalist.
His Friend Was
Inspiration for His Famous Character
Henry
Irving (Stoker’s friend who owned the
Lyceum Theater that Stoker managed) was the physical inspiration for the
author’s famous character, Count Dracula.
Henry Irving was an important model for Dracula.
Published
First Fiction Book in 1881
Bram Stoker
published his first fiction book, Under
the Sunset in 1881.
The Dracula
Story Was Inspired By a Real Historical Figure
Vlad
the Impaler, a real historical figure, infamous for
impaling his enemies on stakes and watching them die in slow agony was the
inspiration for Stoker’s book, Dracula.
He was also known as Vlad III Dracula of
Wallachia.
He Published
His First Horror Story in Installments
Stoker’s
first horror story, The Chain of Destiny
was published in four parts in ‘The
Shamrock.’
He Was an Art
Lover
Stoker loved
art and was the founder of The Dublin
Sketching Club in 1874.
Competed with
Oscar Wilde for a Lady
He
fought Oscar wild for the hand of actress, Florence
Balcombe who was the daughter of a lieutenant-Colonel. And won. The two
stayed together until his death in 1912.
He Met Two American
Presidents
Stoker
did a lot of traveling with Henry Irving and visited the US frequently. He met two
American Presidents, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.
He was the
third of 7 children
Stoker
was the third child of Abraham Stoker and Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley in
a family of seven.
His wife
survived him by twenty-five years
His
wife Florence survived him by twenty-five years. She was his literary executor
and published Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Stories in 1922. There are
speculations that the eponymous story, ‘Dracula's
Guest’ may have been intended as the first chapter for his novel, ‘Dracula.’
Cause of Death is Controversial
Stoker passed
on at No. 26 St George's Square in London on April 20 1912 of exhaustion/overwork or tertiary syphilis or stroke (depending on whose report you believe).
Bram
Stoker would probably be remembered as the man who took Eastern European
folklore and superstitions and invented fiction’s most popular and probably most
dreaded anti-hero, Dracula.
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