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The Man Who Wrote Dracula: A Biography of Bram Stoker

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"The Man Who Wrote Dracula" was the second biography written about the author of the legendary work of gothic horror "Dracula", after Henry Ludlam's 1962 book "A Biography of Dracula". This biography was written in 1975 by Daniel Farson, Bram Stoker's great-nephew, whose grandfather was Bram's younger brother Tom. It has the advantage of being privy to family gossip and anecdotes, but doesn't demonstrate the scholarship of the more recent "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula" by Barbara Belford. In fact, "The Man Who Wrote Dracula" is given to careless use of words and unsubstantiated innuendo, but includes some details of Bram Stoker's professional life not found in Belford's book.

"The Man Who Wrote Dracula" is poorly organized into 3 parts. Part One gets off to an inauspicious start by suggesting, on the first page, that Bram Stoker's debilitating childhood illness may have been psychological, which is low on the list of possibilities. It covers Stoker's time in Ireland, from his birth to his civil service career and moonlighting as a drama critic. Then it moves to London as Stoker takes the job that would define his life: acting manager of the Lyceum Theatre and assistant to the actor Henry Irving. It continues through the best years of his life at the Lyceum. Farson only gets around to talking about Stoker's writing in the last chapter, even though he had been a published author for years at that point.

Part Two concerns the origins and reception of "Dracula". There are chapters on vampire folklore, modern vampire superstitions, explanations of vampire beliefs, literary antecedents, the 15th century Wallachian prince from whom the novel took its name -Vlad "Dracula" Tepes, and Farson analyzes some of the more far-fetched interpretations of "Dracula". I have to commend Farson for stating, in reference to Vlad Tepes, that "Stoker seized on the name of Dracula, together with a vague impression of the background, and that was all". It was around the time this book was published that the theory that Count Dracula was based on the historical Vlad Tepes was becoming popular.

Part Three returns to Stoker's life, starting in 1895, when Farson claims that Stoker started writing Dracula. Stoker actually began the novel 5 years earlier, but his working notes had not been discovered until after this book was published. We follow Stoker through difficult days at the Lyceum, fraught with financial difficulties, to life after Henry Irving, to Bram Stoker's death. Farson includes more details and commentary about Stoker's advocacy of censorship of the arts than I have read elsewhere, which is interesting. His speculation -which Farson states as fact- about the cause of Stoker's death has been the cause of much debate. Farson claims that Stoker died of syphilis, because his death certificate lists "locomotor ataxia" among the causes of death. Locomotor ataxia is, indeed, syphilitic spinal sclerosis, but Stoker had several strokes in the months before his death, whose symptoms could easily have been confused with those of locomotor ataxia by an imperceptive doctor.

"The Man Who Wrote Dracula" seems carelessly written. Although it contains some interesting anecdotes, it doesn't usually mention their source. Still, "Dracula" scholars will want to read this biography and glean what they can. But it would make a confusing and underinformed introduction to Bram Stoker's life. Read Barbara Belford's 1996 biography first.