Dracula

Abraham Stoker was born on November 8, 1847, in Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland, the third of seven children. Bedridden with an unknown illness until age seven, this time gave him time to develop a vivid imagination. Eventually attending Trinity College in Dublin, from 1864 to 1870, he achieved a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and was named University Athlete. Upon graduation, he became a well-known theater critic and founded the Dublin Sketching Club in 1874. In 1878, Bram married Florence Balcombe, ex-fiancé of Oscar Wilde. They had a son in 1879 and moved to London, where he became friends with Arthur Conan Doyle, to whom he was also related. It was there that he became the assistant to actor and Lyceum Theatre owner Henry Irving. Following Irving on his world tours, he met Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley and Walt Whitman. In 1890, he began writing his dozen novels. "Dracula" was published in 1897. He also wrote several short story collections. Stoker died from a stroke on April 20, 1912, at the age of 64, in London, England. He was cremated and his ashes were placed in an urn at Golders Green Crematorium. His son's ashes were eventually placed in the same urn.