BRAM STOKER

Young fans of horror should enjoy this fascinating glimpse into the life of the man who wrote Dracula. Born a sickly child in Ireland, Abraham Stoker didn’t walk until he turned seven; however, he possessed a fertile imagination that was nourished by his mother’s tales of blood-sucking faeries as well as the real-life horrors of the potato famine. Stoker grew into a strapping young man and campus leader in college; later he supported himself as a civil-service clerk. But such a mundane existence held little attraction for him, and after befriending renowned stage actor Henry Irving, Stoker accepted a post managing Irving’s company at London’s Lyceum Theater. Although Stoker proved a success, eventually shepherding Irving’s players on tours throughout the US, the urge to create tugged at him throughout his life; among his literary outpourings was Dracula, published when he was 47. While the novel was serialized in newspapers of the day, Stoker never achieved financial success—a fact that may shock readers more than anything Stoker wrote. (b&w photos, chronology, appendix, bibliography, sources, index) (Biography. 12-14)