Abraham (Bram) Stoker was born November 8, 1947 in north Dublin, the third of

seven children. For the first 7 years of his life he (Stoker) with a lot of childhood diseases

which afforded him much time to reading. By the time he went to college, Stoker had somehow

overcome his chilhood illnesses and while at Trintiy College, Dublin, the honor student was

involved in soccer and was amarathon running champion. He was also involved in various

literary and dramatic activities, a precursor to his later interests in the theater and his

involvement with the rising actor, Henry Irving, whose performance he had critiqued as a

student at Trinity. After graduation from college, and in his father's footsteps, he became a civil

servant, holding the positon of junior clerk in the Dublin Castle. His first literary "success" came

a year later when, in 1872 , The London Society published his short story " The Crystal Cup."

As early as 1875 Stoker's unique brand of fiction had come tothe forefront. In a four part

series called the "Chain of Deestiny," were the themes that would become Stoker's trademark:

horror mixed with romance, nightmares and curses. Stoker encountered Henry Irving again,

this time in the role of Hamlet, 10yeas after he graduated from Trinty. He still the critic (and still

holding the civil service job), gave Irving's performance a good review. Impressed with

Stoker's review, he (Irving) invited Stoker back stage and their strong friendship lasted until

Irving's death in 1905. The Stoker / Irving partnership solidified around 1878. During this time

Irving had taken over his own theater company called the London Lyceum( A hall for lectures),

but he didn't like the management, and then approached Stoker to handle business, at which

point Stoker gave up his government job and became the acting manager of the theater. Then

after resigning from the civil service he married a nineteen-year-old beauty named Florence

Balcombe, and set off for his new life(Fisher). Within a year Florence had given birth to their

only child, a son, Noel. But even with a heavy workload that consisted of taking care of his

family and looking after some 125 staff members at the theater he still managed to write. His

first book the Sunset(1882) consisted of eight eerie children's tales. His first full-length novel,

The Snake's Pass, was published in 1890. That very same year he started his research for his

masterwork, Dracula, which, seven years later, would launch its bloodthirsty protagonist, Count

Dracula (If not Stoker himself),on a course toward world-wide acclaim. Henry Irving died in

1905 leaving Stoker for the first time in his life without a job. And one yaer after Henry Irving's

death Stoker wrote "Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving," Stoker managed to write other

novels after this point until the time ofhis death in 1912 at the age of 64(Monkey Notes)