Today marks the 165th anniversary of Abraham “Bram” Stoker’s birth. Famous for his horror novel DRACULA, Stoker was a proficient journalist as well and had a love for the theatre and even managed the Lyeum Theatre for almost thirty years.
Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland and was bedridden with illness until he was seven, when he began attending school. During his illness his mother would amuse him stories, especially ones about the supernatural.
While a manager for the Lyeum Theatre, Stoker was a staff contributor of fiction for the London Daily Telegraph. He was inspired to write DRACULA after meeting a Hungarian traveller named Armin Vambery who told him dark tales about his homeland. Inspired, Stoker set out to research all he could about vampires and vampire folklore before writing his masterpiece.
Stoker continued a successful career in writing and it is rumoured that the cause of his death in 1912 was overwork.
DID YOU KNOW?
- The very first adaptation of DRACULA was the 1922 film NOSFERATU. Since then there have been over 200 movies made about Count Dracula.
- The original title for DRACULA was supposed to be “The Un-Dead” and was changed at the last minute..
- Stoker was a believer of Mesmerism, a form of hypnotism.
- Following his passion for art, Stoker founded the Dublin Sketching Club in 1874.
- The ashes of Stoker’s only child, Irving Noel Stoker, sit mixed in with the ashes of Bram Stoker in a decorated urn.