Who Wrote Dracula and When Was It Published?
A theatre manager, seven years of notes and a yellow book in May 1897
Bram Stoker spent his days answering letters, counting ticket money and arranging tours for the most famous actor in Victorian London. In the evenings, for seven years, he filled notebooks with wolves, maps of Transylvania and train times to Whitby.
The book that came out of those notebooks outlived the theatre, the actor and almost everything else Stoker did.
Bram Stoker and Dracula: the timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1847 | Abraham (Bram) Stoker born on 8 November in Clontarf, Dublin |
| 1878 | Marries Florence Balcombe; moves to London to manage the Lyceum Theatre for Henry Irving |
| 1890 | Begins notes for the novel; holiday in Whitby, where he finds the name Dracula |
| 1890s | Writes part of the book at Cruden Bay in Scotland |
| May 1897 | A staged reading at the Lyceum protects the copyright; the novel is published on 26 May |
| 1912 | Stoker dies in London on 20 April |
| 1922 | Nosferatu is made without permission; Florence sues |
Who was Bram Stoker?
Abraham Stoker was born in Dublin in 1847. He was so sickly as a small child that he could barely walk until he was about seven, and he later said the stories his mother told him in bed stayed with him for life. He grew up strong enough to become a champion athlete at Trinity College Dublin, then worked as a civil servant and wrote theatre reviews in his spare time.
One review, of the actor Henry Irving, changed his life. The two became friends, and in 1878 Irving made him manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, a job Stoker held for twenty-seven years while writing novels at night.
↑ Back to the topHow Stoker wrote Dracula
His notes, now at the Rosenbach in Philadelphia, show the book growing from about 1890. The villain was first called Count Wampyr, and the story was to be set partly in Styria. A summer in Whitby gave him the name Dracula from a library book, the harbour, the ruins on the cliff top and a real shipwreck, all of which went into the novel.
He told the story entirely through documents, so readers piece it together from journals, letters, newspaper cuttings, a ship's log and phonograph recordings, the way a detective would. That form is a large part of why the book still feels fresh.
↑ Back to the topWhen was Dracula published?
Archibald Constable and Company published Dracula on 26 May 1897, in a plain yellow cloth binding with red lettering. A week earlier Stoker had staged a long, rough reading of the story at the Lyceum, a common trick at the time to secure the stage rights.
Reviews were mostly good, and the book sold steadily without making Stoker rich. Its huge fame came later, through the stage plays of the 1920s and the films that followed.
↑ Back to the topWhat happened to Stoker and the book?
Stoker kept writing, including The Jewel of Seven Stars and The Lair of the White Worm, but none came close to Dracula. Irving died in 1905, and Stoker's health and money declined; he died in London in 1912. Ten years later his widow Florence had to go to court to stop the unlicensed German film Nosferatu. Her fight to protect the copyright helped make the novel the most adapted horror story in the world.
↑ Back to the topMore about Dracula
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