Bram Stoker

Bram Stoker was born on 8 November 1847 at Clontarf, Dublin in Ireland. His parents attended the Parish Church of Clontarf with their children. Stoker was the third of seven children. Stoker was bedridden of an unknown illness till the age of seven when he made a complete recovery. Stoker wrote, “I was naturally thoughtful and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which gave fruit in my later years.” Later, he became a university athlete at Trinity College, Dublin. Stoker became interested in theatre through a friend, Dr Maunsell. He later became a critic for the Dublin Evening Mail. He gained popularity because of the quality of his reviews. He is most famous for his book, Dracula. But during Stoker’s lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and as the business manager of the Lyceum Theatre. Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as a collection of realistic, but completely fictional, diary entries, telegrams, letters, ship’s logs and newspaper clippings, all of which added a level of detailed realism to his story, a skill he developed as a newspaper writer. An annual festival takes place in Dublin, the birthplace of Bram Stoker, in honour of his literary achievements. Stoker died due to multiple strokes at the age of 64.