Stoker Brem

Bram Stoker was an Irish writer, novelist and short story writer, and theatre critic.

Bram (Abraham) Stoker was born on November 8, 1847, in Ireland, in Dublin. The third child in the family of a modest civil servant, he was unable to walk for a long time because of illness. In time, however, the illness receded, and at Trinity College, which he later graduated from with honors, Stoker became known as a track-and-field athlete and an excellent football player. Actively involved in the work of the “Philosophical Society,” Stoker soon became its chairman. Despite his academic success, Stoker, following in his father’s footsteps, worked for nearly ten years at the Viceroy’s residence.

However, this did not prevent him, a passionate theatre enthusiast, from regularly publishing reviews in the Dublin newspaper the Evening Mail, though his newspaper work was unpaid. At the same time, Stoker wrote short stories. He left the civil service when the famous English actor Henry Irving, whom Stoker had admired all his life, offered him the position of business manager of the Lyceum Theatre, where Stoker served until Henry Irving’s death. He was so deeply affected by Irving’s passing that he suffered a stroke and remained unconscious for a full day. After recovering, Stoker continued his literary work. Thus, his interview with Winston Churchill appeared in the Daily Chronicle.

Bram Stoker died in London on April 20, 1912, leaving behind his wife, née Florence Balcombe, the celebrated Irish beauty, whose hand among others had been sought by Oscar Wilde, and their only son, Noel.