Bram Stoker

Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish theatre manager and novelist. He is best known as the author of Dracula (1897), an epistolary Gothic horror novel that is considered by commentators to be a landmark in vampire literature. The work deeply influenced future representations of vampiric characters and Stoker popularly came to be regarded as "the father of vampire fiction." During the early part of his career, Stoker spent ten years in the civil service at Dublin Castle, during which time he was also a drama critic for the Dublin Evening Mail. Following this, he was employed as a theatre critic for several newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph, and occasionally wrote short stories and theatre commentaries. During his life, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and the business manager of the West End's Lyceum Theatre, which Irving owned. Stoker regularly travelled during his free time, particularly to Cruden Bay in Scotland, which was the setting for two of his novels and also served as the inspiration for writing Dracula. He was friends with both Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde, and collaborated with other authors in writing experimental novels such as The Fate of Fenella (1892). Stoker wrote a dozen horror and mystery novels and novellas, including The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), The Lair of the White Worm (1911) and The Mystery of the Sea (1902), but his reputation as one of the most influential writers of Gothic horror fiction lies solely with Dracula. Since the early 20th century, the novel has become one of the best-selling works of vampire fiction and Count Dracula is one of the best-known fictional figures of the Victorian era. Following its initial publication, there have been more than 700 adaptations of the character across virtually all forms of media.