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KF5JRV > TODAY 26.05.19 11:39z 7 Lines 2461 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 36988_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - May 26
Path: HB9ON<IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IK6ZDE<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190526/1137Z 36988@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
The first copies of the classic vampire novel Dracula, by Irish writerBram Stoker, appear in London bookshops on this day in 1897.A childhood invalid, Stoker grew up to become a football (soccer) starat Trinity College, Dublin. After graduation, he got a job in civilservice at Dublin Castle, where he worked for the next 10 years whilewriting drama reviews for the Dublin Mail on the side. In this way,Stoker met the well-respected actor Sir Henry Irving, who hired him ashis manager. Stoker stayed in the post for most of the next threedecades, writing Irving’s voluminous correspondence for him andaccompanying him on tours in the United States. Over the years, Stokerbegan writing a number of horror stories for magazines, and in 1890 hepublished his first novel, The Snake’s Pass.Stoker would go on to publish 17 novels in all, but it was his 1897novel Dracula that eventually earned him literary fame and became knownas a masterpiece of Victorian-era Gothic literature. Written in the formof diaries and journals of its main characters, Dracula is the story ofa vampire who makes his way from Transylvania–a region of Eastern Europenow in Romania–to Yorkshire, England, and preys on innocents there toget the blood he needs to live. Stoker had originally named the vampire“Count Wampyr.ö He found the name Dracula in a book on Wallachia andMoldavia written by retired diplomat William Wilkinson, which heborrowed from a Yorkshire public library during his family’s vacationsthere.Vampires–who left their burial places at night to drink the blood ofhumans–were popular figures in folk tales from ancient times, butStoker’s novel catapulted them into the mainstream of 20th-centuryliterature. Upon its release, Dracula enjoyed moderate success, thoughwhen Stoker died in 1912 none of his obituaries even mentioned Draculaby name. Sales began to take off in the 1920s, when the novel wasadapted for Broadway. Dracula mania kicked into even higher gear withUniversal’s blockbuster 1931 film, directed by Tod Browning and starringthe Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi. Dozens of vampire-themed movies,television shows and literature followed, though Lugosi, with his exoticaccent, remains the quintessential Count Dracula. Late 20th-centuryexamples of the vampire craze include the bestselling novels of Americanwriter Anne Rice and the cult hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
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