Stoker, Bram [Abraham] (1847-1912)

views updated

Stoker, Bram [Abraham] (1847-1912)

Writer of books on occult themes and creator of the deathless vampire Dracula. He was born on November 8, 1847, in Dublin, Ireland. Stoker was named Abraham after his father but later preferred the short form "Bram."

He was a sickly child for some years although quite athletic as a young man. Perhaps his brooding childhood first engendered those imaginative horrors that found expression in his great vampire story and other weird thrillers. His mother had told him tales of the banshee, the Irish fairy whose terrifying wails announce death in the family, and also of the great cholera plague that had claimed thousands of victims in an Ireland ravaged by starvation and foreign occupation.

Stoker studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and became a member of the college's Philosophical Society, later being elected president. His first essay delivered to the society was titled "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society." He was auditor for the Historical Society and also developed a great interest in theater. At age 19 he was electrified by a performance of the great actor Henry Irving, whose company he later joined as a manager.

Stoker graduated with honors in science in 1870 and spent ten uneventful years as a civil servant at Dublin Castle. His first book was the prosaic but quite useful The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions (1879). In 1878 he married Florence Balcombe, a beautiful woman who had been on friendly terms with Oscar Wilde.

After a period as part-time drama critic, newspaper editor, and barrister at law, he became acting manager for Henry Irving, accompanying him on his British and American tours. Stoker was a hardworking manager and faithful friend to Irving for 27 years until Irving's death in 1905.

His masterpiece, Dracula, was written at odd moments and weekends during a busy career. It owed the name of its basic character to chance conversation with the intrepid Hungarian scholar-explorer Arminius Vambéry (1832-1913), who visited Dublin on a lecture tour.

It seems that Vambéry told Stoker about Romanian legends of the bloodthirsty tyrant Prince Vlad Tepes (known as Dracula, or "son of Dracul"). Stoker also researched in libraries in Whit-by and London and perfected his knowledge of the background of the Transylvanian countryside, in which he set his fictional count. Some of the weird atmosphere of his story probably derived from the vampire story Carmilla, written by another Dubliner, Sheridan Le Fanu, and first published in 1871.

In addition to his immortal Dracula, Stoker published other novels and stories: The Snake's Pass (1890), The Watter's Mou' (1895), The Shoulder of Shasta (1895), Miss Betty (1898), The Mystery of the Sea (1902), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1904), The Man (1905), The Gates of Life (1908), Lady Athlyne (1908), Snowbound (1908), The Lady of the Shroud (1909), and The Lair of the White Worm (1911). His volume of short stories Dracula's Guest was published posthumously in 1937; the title story was originally a chapter in the manuscript of Dracula, deleted to shorten the work. He died April 20, 1912. His greatest work, at least to himself, was his biography of his mentor, Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (2 vols., 1906). He also wrote an interesting volume called Famous Impostors (1910).

Bram Stoker's memory and his association with Gothic literature is kept alive by various societies, notably the Bram Stoker Society (c/o David Lass, Hon. Secretary, Regent House, Trinity College, Dublin, 2, Ireland); the Dracula Society (36 Elliston House, 100 Wellington St., London, SE10 QQF, England); The Count Dracula Fan Club (29 Washington Sq. W., New York, NY 10011); and the Transylvanian Society of Dracula (P.O. Box 91611, Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1611).

(See also Fiction, English Occult )