Jill Alonzo
Jeremy Greenwald
Stephanie Kulas
Aimee Moll
Biography of Bram Stoker
11/01/04
Abraham Bram Stoker was born to Irish and English parents near Dublin on November 8, 1847. The third of seven children, Stoker suffered from an unexplained illness that left him bedridden until the age of seven. While trapped in his bed, his mother told him numerous horror stories to help pass the time, perhaps instilling in him a permanent fascination for death and the grotesque. In later years, Stoker was apt to submerge into spells of morbidity that he would not emerge from for days, and these could also be explained by his mothers unorthodox taste in bedtime stories.
He entered Trinity College in Dublin at the early age of sixteen. He was named University Athlete for his performance in soccer and marathon walking, and was also the President of the colleges Philosophical and Historical Societies. During his time at Trinity, he became a fan of the theater, and became enamored with the performances of actor Henry Irving. After he graduated Trinity with honors in mathematics, he began to search for a career. Though Stoker had ambitions of becoming a writer, his father could not see a profitable or comfortable future in writing, so he convinced him to follow in his footsteps as a civil servant at Dublin Castle. His work there did not interfere with his ambitions, however, because he still worked as a freelance journalist for Dublins Evening Mail, as a drama critic, and as an editor for a local magazine, the Irish Echo. He was also deeply interested in the Romantic poets, and during these years, he established a correspondence with Walt Whitman. During this time, Henry Irving returned to Ireland in the starring role of a production of Hamlet. Stokers subsequent emphatic review of his performance caught Irvings eye, and he invited the journalist backstage at one of his shows, where they became fast friends. They maintained the friendship even though Irving once again left Ireland with his troupe of actors.
Stoker maintained ties to Trinity College, returning there frequently to speak on a wide range of topics for the Philosophical Society. He first became noticed as a writer when, in 1872, the London Society published one of his short stories, The Crystal Cup. Though not a major accomplishment, it did make his name somewhat recognizable. His positions at the castle and in the Historical Society also allowed him to enjoy the company of, and become known among, Dublins elite, where he met and befriended Sir William and Lady Jane Wilde, parents of his Trinity classmates Oscar and Willie Wilde. There he also met Florence Balcombe, Oscars former lover and a daughter of a lieutenant colonel. Stoker romantically pursued Balcombe, and when he published his first novel, The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, he married her and the two moved to London in 1878 on its small success. There he met again with his dear friend Irving, who had since become the manager of the Lyceum Theatre. Stoker took a position as business manager of the theater, where he handled all financial matters, ran the staff, and managed Irvings business affairs in general. He continued to write, but instead of journalism and hard facts, Stoker turned to short stories and fiction. He published a collection of childrens horror stories, Under the Sunset, in 1882, and a second novel, The Snakes Pass, in 1890. After his second novel went to print, Stoker began research for his most famous work, Dracula, which was completed and published in 1897.
Based on Hungarian folklore and inspired by Whitmans eerily erotic images of death, Dracula was vastly superior to Stokers earlier attempts at fiction, and had greater success in his time than any other of his works. Dracula himself was an amalgamation and transformation of the personalities of Whitman and Irving, and in the tale, Stoker coined the oft-used term undead. While his other works are heavily dated and are no longer popular, Dracula has never gone out of print, and continues to sell steadily today. Ironically, Dracula gained Stoker very little while he was still alive. The royalties from its sale were not enough to support himself, Florence, and their son Noel, so he had to continue on as business manager at the theater until Henry Irvings death in 1905. At that time, Stoker left the theater altogether, and the combination of the stress from the loss of his longtime friend and his lack of monetary stability perhaps contributed to his first stroke shortly after. His health continued to decline, and two strokes later, much like in childhood, he remained bedridden. His eyesight declined, and even though he continued to write, he had to do so with a magnifying glass. He returned to his journalistic roots and wrote for the Daily Telegrapher and the New York World, where he wrote profiles of up and coming celebrities and politicians, including Winston Churchill. Stoker also became highly involved in the fight for censorship. Though his most successful novel could be considered unclean because of its erotic imagery and depiction of polygamy and homosexual attraction, he still fought to bring some sort of moral standard to the literary world.
Though Stoker continued in his chosen profession until he died, his income from the periodicals and the royalties from Dracula were still not enough to support him and his family, which was under heavy enough strain to force he and his wife to become estranged. He even petitioned for assistance from the Royal Literary Fund, and actually received financial aid to help him survive and continue in his art. In 1911, however, his financial woes forced him to abandon his home and take a small flat. He died shortly after on April 20th, 1912, at the age of 64.
Bram Stoker may not have been wildly popular in his own time, but he has since become one of the most influential writers in vampire fiction, and his single story, Dracula, continues to shape the idea of the legendary monsters to this very day.