Abraham Stoker was born on the 8th of November, 1847 at 15, Marino Crescent,Clontarf, one of a family of seven children. His father was a civil servant and his mother, Charlotte, was a writer. He was a sickly child and spent most of the first seven years of his life, bedridden. During this time, his mother read stories to him, including ghost stories and also related stories of the cholera epidemic of 1832, in which thousands of people died. His family had a tomb in St. Michan’s vaults and visits to this spooky place must have had an effect on him. These factors helped to influence his later writing.
At seven years, he had fully recovered from his illness and was able to attend school. In 1864, he studied in Trinity College, from which he graduated with an honours degree in mathematics. By this time, he was six feet and two inches in height and became a powerful athlete. After graduation, he worked in the Civil Service and became an Inspector of Petty Sessions. He wrote a book on his experiences called “The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions”. He also worked as a freelance journalist and was employed by the Dublin Evening Mail, whose proprietor was none other than Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, the famous writer of gothic ghost stories. Thus, Le Fanu became a mentor for Stoker, who was greatly influenced by his works. Stoker married Florence Balcombe, an actress, on the 4th of December 1878. He was offered a position by the famous actor, Henry Irving, and both he and Florence moved to London.
He was manager to Henry Irving for twenty seven years. Florence and Bram had only one child, a son, who they named Irving Noel. He wrote Dracula, his most famous novel, in 1897 and his original title for it was “The Un-Dead”. Although he travelled widely, he never visited Eastern Europe or Transylvania, where Dracula was set. He visited the United States numerous times and wrote a book on his travels called “A Glimpse of America”. Towards the end of his life his health was in decline. He suffered a number of strokes and died on the 20th of April 1912.
This article was originally published in:
Fountain News Digital – July 2012 (Issue 9)
We are re-publishing all articles from our past newsletter, Fountain News Digital, and you can view all completed newsletters here. There were nine issues published in total between 2010 and 2012.
