Interesting Facts About Bram Stoker

Bram Stoker’s Dracula set the standard when it comes to the interpretation of the modern vampire, which in at least some way served as inspiration for such meg hits as Twilight and Interview with the Vampire. Here are three interesting facts about Bram Stoker that you may not have know.

He’s never been to Transylvania. Although the story of Dracula is loosely based in Romanian history as well as folklore, and although Stoker’s Dracula is partially set in Transylvania, a mountainous region in central Romania, Stoker, an Irish author, had never in fact visited Romania or any other part of Eastern Europe.

He once fought with Oscar Wilde over a woman. Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker were college friends, both having attended Trinity College in Dublin. That is, until Stoker decided to marry Florence Balcombe, Oscar Wilde’s childhood sweetheart. The two managed to settle the feud and remained friends, however, and Stoker would later travel to visit Wilde while he was living in France.

You need an escort to see his ashes. Bram Stoker died on April 20, 1912, although accounts of the cause of death remained varied, perhaps due to attempts to conceal the fact that he suffered from syphilis. Stoker was cremated, and his ashes were held for viewing at the Golders Green Crematorium, the first crematorium in London, where they remain today. His ashes can be viewed by the public, but only with an escort.

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