Who was Bram Stoker?
He was born November 8, 1847 in Clontarf, Ireland, near Dublin. Yes, I thought he was British, but he is an Irish writer and the Irish are justifiably proud. Both Clontarf and Dublin have pages devoted to Stoker. http://www.clontarf-online.com/bram_stok… http://www.visit.ie/dublin/dublin_stoker… After he graduated from college, he worked as a civil servant at Dublin Castle and moonlighted as a free lance journalist, drama critic and editor of the “Evening Mail”. It was in his job as drama critic that he first met the famous actor Sir Henry Irving, who was performing Hamlet. In 1878, Bram married the actress, Florence Balcombe, and moved to London to become secretary and stage manager for Irving. His friendship for Irving became the major factor in his life and he worked for Irving until the actor’s death in 1905. In 1878, Stoker published his first book, The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland. He followed that in 1882 with a collection of short stories, Under the Sunset.
“I’m a big fan of Irish literature, and (Stoker) is one of the last big-name writers that people know of — at least people know his name — but hardly anyone knows anything about him,” says James Reese, the author of the novel “The Dracula Dossier.” “And I think that has a lot to do with how Count Dracula has lived on in film. Clearly, the novel still has a life of its own; I think it’s a great novel and bears up under re-reading. But I wanted to know more about Stoker.” Reese, the author of novels including “The Book of Shadows,” had no idea of the richness of Stoker’s life. Born Abraham Stoker in Dublin in 1847, he was a struggling writer for most of his life who worked as a civil servant and theater critic. After writing a favorable review about actor Henry Irving — one of the leading thespians of the age — Stoker was enlisted to run Irving’s Lyceum Theatre in London. Among his acquaintances were those, including William Butler Yeats, who were interested in Egyptology by way of a
