Bram Stoker and Dracula

Creator of Dracula, Bram Stoker introduced Victorian society to a world of vampires and sparked an obsession with the undead that has continued for almost two hundred years.

Abraham Stoker was born on November 8 in Dublin, Ireland, the son of a civil servant and a social worker who was also a writer. Stoker was a sickly child who spent a lot of time in bed; his mother told him horror stories to entertain him, something that definitely influenced his later writing.

In 1864 he entered Trinity College Dublin. At the same time, he also began working as a civil servant while splitting his time between freelance journalism and theater criticism. In 1876 he met the famous actor Henry Irving, with whom he immediately struck up a friendship. Not long after, he met and fell in love with a budding actress named Florence Balcombe. In 1878, Stoker accepted a job with Henry Irving as his personal assistant. That same year he married Balcombe. On December 9 he moved with his wife to England.

His first book, "The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland," was published in 1879. On December 30 his only son, Noel, was born. While in England, he wrote many novels and short stories. His first work of fiction, "Under the Sunset," was published in 1881. Stoker wrote 18 books before his death in 1912, among them the one that would give him immortality: Dracula.

Dracula became one of the most adapted books in the history of film, among which stand out: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola, Dracula (1958) by Terence Fisher, Dracula (1931) by Tod Browning, and Nosferatu (1922) by F.W. Murnau, among others.

It also has about a hundred stage productions around the world and inspires vampire festivals such as the Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin, which celebrates the author's life and work with stage productions, ghost hunts, parties, plays, and street performances.

With information from bramstoker.org and bramstokerestate.com