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Bram Stoker (November 8, 1847–April 20, 1912)
 Bram
Stoker born on November 8, 1847 at Clontarf in Ireland, a
coastal suburb of Dublin to Abraham Stoker (married Stoker's
mother in 1844; died on October 10, 1876) and Charlotte Mathilda
Blake Thornley (born in 1818; died in 1901) as the second of six
children (his siblings were: Mathilda, born 1846; Thomas, born
1850; Richard, born 1852; Margaret, born 1854; and George, born
1855). Until he was 7 years old, recurring illness ensured that
he could neither stand up nor walk on his own. This illness and
helplessness was a traumatic experience which is noticeable in
his literary work. Everlasting sleep and the resurrection from
the dead, which are the central themes of Dracula, were of great
importance for him, because he was forced to spend much of his
life in bed.
Not only his illness but also his convalescence were considered
miracles by his doctors. After his recovery, he became a normal
young man who even became an athlete and soccer-star at the
University of Dublin, where he studied history, literature,
mathematics and physics at Trinity College. He was also
president of the University Philosophical Society, where his
first paper was on "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society", and
auditor of the College Historical Society. He became a civil
servant, a career that didn't satisfy him. So he started to work
as a journalist and as a drama critic (The Evening Mail). His
interest in theatre lead to a lifelong friendship with the actor
Henry Irving.
Stoker married Florence Balcome, a former girlfriend of Oscar
Wilde, in 1878. Stoker moved with his wife to London, where he
became business manager of Irving's Lyceum Theatre, 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 James McNeil Whistler and Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle. In the course of Irving's tours he got the chance
to travel around the world.
He supplemented his income 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.
Dracula has been the basis for countless films and plays. The
two that most closely follow the plot of the original novel are
Nosferatu (1922) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Nosferatu was
produced while Stoker's widow was still alive, and the
filmmakers were forced to change the setting and the names of
the characters for copyright reasons.
Stoker wrote several other novels dealing with horror and
supernatural themes, but none 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).
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