The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker

by J. Browning (Editor)

Overview

Presented here, for the first time since their publication over a century ago, are twelve previously unknown published works of fiction, poetry, and journalistic writing by Bram Stoker (1847-1912), three works never before reprinted, twelve period writings about Stoker, and the rare 1913 estate sale catalogue of his personal library.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349447022
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	12/05/2012
Edition description:	1st ed. 2012
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

John Edgar Browning is Arthur A. Schomburg Fellow in the Department of Transnational Studies and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of English at SUNY-Buffalo. He has co-/written eight books, including Draculas, Vampires, and Other Undead Forms: Essays on Gender, Race, and Culture; Dracula in Visual Media: Film, Television, Comic Book and Electronic Game Appearances, 1921–2010; The Vampire, His Kith and Kin: A Critical Edition; and Bram Stoker's Dracula: The Critical Feast, An Annotated Reference of Reviews and Reactions, 1897-1920. His work on horror and the fantastic has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, including Film History, Horror Studies, Studies in the Fantastic, and Dead Reckonings: A Review Magazine for the Horror Field.

Elizabeth Miller is Professor Emerita at The Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is recognized internationally for her expertise on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula and is the president of the Canadian chapter of Transylvanian Society of Dracula and the editor of the Journal of Dracula Studies. Her publications include Reflections on Dracula; Dracula: The Shade and the Shadow; Dracula: Sense & Nonsense, A Dracula Handbook; Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula: A Facsimile Edition; and Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Documentary Journey into Vampire Country and the Dracula Phenomenon.

Dacre Stoker is the great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker and the best-selling co-author of Dracula the Un-Dead, the official Stoker family-sanctioned sequel to Dracula. Dacre is also the co-editor (with Miller) of The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker: The Dublin Years.

Table of Contents

Foreword; E.Miller Introduction: Bram Stoker: A Periodical Portrait of the 'Author of Dracula'; J.E.Browning PART I: UNKNOWN POETRY (1890-1892) The Member for the Strand (1890) The Wrongs of Grosvenor Square (1892) PART II: UNKNOWN FICTION (1893-1908) Bengal Roses (1893) Old Hoggen (1893) When the Sky Rains Gold (1894) A Young Widow (1899) A Baby Passenger (1899) Lucky Escapes of Sir Henry Irving (1900) What They Confessed: A Low Comedian's Story (1908) PART III: UNKNOWN JOURNALISTIC WRITINGS (1891-1908) Recollections of the Late W. G. Wills (1891) Sir Henry Irving: An Appreciation by Bram Stoker, His Longtime Friend (1904) 12,000 Miles of Irving's Audiences (1906) Where Hall Caine Dreams Out His Romances; On His Native Island the famous Manxman Lives Like an Uncrowned King in a Literary Atmosphere of His Own Making (1908) PART IV: UNKNOWN INTERVIEWS WITH BRAM STOKER (1886) Irving and Hudson; Bram Stoker Tells What He Thinks about the Controversy A Chat with Mr. Stoker about Irving PART V: RARE AND UNCOLLECTED (ca. 1899) Sir Henry Irving and Miss Ellen Terry in Robespierre, Merchant of Venice, The Bells, Nance Oldfield, The Amber Heart, Waterloo, etc. (ca. 1899) Henry Irving's Fight for Fame (1906) PART VI: PERIOD WRITINGS ABOUT BRAM STOKER (1896-1912) To Bram Stoker (1893) [dedication], by Hall ('Hommy Beg') Caine Green Room Gossip (1896) Night with Sir Henry Irving; With Intimations that Bram Stoker was in the Neighborhood (1900) Actor-Manager and Author Bram Stoker Finds Recreation in Writing Romances (1902) Story of Senator Quay (1904) Bram Stoker (1912) Bram Stoker, Irishman PART VII: CATALOGUE OF VALUABLE BOOKS, AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, AND ILLUMINATED AND OTHER MANUSCRIPTS, INCLUDING THE LIBRARY OF THE LATE BRAM STOKER, ESQ. AND ASSOCIATED PRESS (1913) First Day's Sale: The Property of Bram Stoker, Esq. (Deceased) Bram Stoker's Valuable Library To Be Sold Low Prices for Americana Whitman Writings Sold Afterword; D.Stoker

Editorial Reviews

"In The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker, John Edgar Browning gathers Stoker's early poetry, some of his journalism, several interviews, a number of trivial short stories, the catalogue of his library, and many other odds and ends. Yet what surprises most in these pages is the humor, sometimes sentimental, sometimes macabre, sometimes utterly fanciful." - The Washington Post

"For more than a hundred years the name Count Dracula has struck a chill into the hearts of readers. The original Bram Stoker novel has spawned countless imitation stories and a rich tradition of vampire films that still thrill audiences today. Now, in the centenary year of the author's death, a discovery of lost work by him has shed fresh light on a great horror masterpiece . . . The writings reveal much about the style and background Stoker would re-use in his classic vampire story." - The Guardian

"Palgrave Macmillan has produced a handsome volume, and the detective work of the book's editor, John Edgar Browning, is to be commended. " -The Times Literary Supplement

"The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker has got just what you'd want from a Stoker collection." - blastr.com (SyFy Channel)

"The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker illuminates and elucidates Stoker as a person. The assembled short stories overall exhibit his predilection for affairs of the heart and pat happy endings. There is much ado about his theatre associations. All are extremely well presented and scholarly without being stuffy. Still, what is the bottom line? Editor John Edgar Browning provides Stoker enthusiasts with a book that will pique their zeal and round out their collection." - Diabolique

"An undeniable treasure trove." - Fangoria

"An important contribution to Stoker studies." - Rue Morgue

"An important volume in Stoker studies...skilled literary detective work went into finding everything in The Forgotten Writings." - The Virginia Quarterly

"The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker is a treasure trove for Stoker fans, offering up previously lost and unknown works. Among them, his short story 'When the Sky Rains Gold' - which brings about the revelation that the horror master also wrote romances." - Publisher's Weekly

"A curious collection of miscellaneous writing by the author of Dracula. Browning digs into obscure archives for lost works by Stoker (1847 1912), who maintained a rich writing life while serving a 30-year tenure as business manager for the actor Sir Henry Irving, based at the Lyceum Theatre in London . . . The tales included here display some of Stoker's weirdly meandering plots and mischievous humor . . . [and] a fascinating catalog of the items for sale at the 1913 auction of Stoker's property, especially his library, full of books by his friend Walt Whitman." - Kirkus Reviews

"The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker is impressive right from the first page . . . if you have any interest in Bram Stoker at all, this is a book for you." - Horror World

"This collection also permits academic study of the intertextual development of the broader Stoker oeuvre, especially elements later synthesised in his Dracula tale. As such, the collection has a broad appeal, and serves an important function in the on-going compilation of the Stoker bibliography." - The Historical Novels Review

"The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker is a book that belongs on the bookshelves of everyone who is interested in Dracula, Stoker, or the long nineteenth century." - Carol A. Senf, author of Bram Stoker (Gothic Authors: Critical Revisions) and Professor and Associate Chair of the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

"Another fascinating volume from the rising star in Stoker research. With each new book and each new discovery, John Edgar Browning coaxes the elusive author of Dracula out of the shadows and into revealing focus." - David J. Skal, author of Hollywood Gothic and The Monster Show

"Most remember Bram Stoker today only for his monumental Dracula. Browning's amazing literary detective work helps to refocus our picture of Stoker, showing him as part of a fascinating circle of writers and friends in 1890's London. This is a most welcome volume for both scholars and readers!" - Leslie S. Klinger, editor of The New Annotated Dracula and The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes

"Truly magnificent . . . a real service to Stoker scholars specifically and researchers in the Gothic more generally . . .This is a book that should be in all departmental libraries which support the teaching of Gothic and Irish literature, and one that every Stoker scholar will need to own." - William Hughes, Joint President of the International Gothic Association, co-editor of Bram Stoker: History, Psychoanalysis and the Gothic, author of Beyond Dracula, and co-compiler of Bram Stoker: A Bibliography, and Professor of Gothic Studies at Bath Spa University, UK

From the Publisher

…what surprises most in these pages is the humor, sometimes sentimental, sometimes macabre, sometimes utterly fanciful…These jottings were never published until now but are surprisingly delightful, especially when illuminated by the section essays of editors Elizabeth Miller and Dacre Stoker.

The Washington Post - Michael Dirda

In this treasure trove for Stoker devotees, editor Browning offers up previously lost or unknown works by the famed Dracula author, providing a fascinating look into Stoker’s psyche. The collection is divided into seven parts: one each for unknown poetry, fiction, and journalistic writings; a compilation of unknown interviews; rare and uncollected works; period writings about Stoker; and a catalogue of his personal library, including autographed letters and “illuminated and other manuscripts,” which went up for auction after his death in 1912. What’s most surprising is that despite his best-known work, Stoker was in his time known as selfless person whom many wouldn’t have pegged as a writer of dark gothic novels. This is underlined by a heart-wrenching short story of a young widower (“A Baby Passenger”) and the revelation that the author wrote romances—such as “When the Sky Rains Gold,” included here—as well as children’s stories, fantasies, and mysteries. This well-edited book will interest Stoker fans and literary historians alike. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

A curious collection of miscellaneous writing by the author of Dracula. Editor Browning digs into obscure archives for lost works by Stoker (1847–1912), who maintained a rich writing life while serving a 30-year tenure as business manager for the actor Sir Henry Irving, based at the Lyceum Theatre in London. Much of Stoker's work has, "until now eluded bibliographers," perhaps because it's not terribly memorable--for example, many early novels and stories that appeared largely in serial form in British and American periodicals starting with Under the Sunset in 1881. (Browning reports definitively that Dracula was first serialized in the Charlotte Daily Observer from July 16, 1899 to December 10, 1899, much earlier than previously thought.) The tales included here display some of Stoker's weirdly meandering plots and mischievous humor, such as in "Old Hoggen: A Mystery," narrated by a comfortably well-off husband who is sent out to scour the seacoast of Charmouth for crabs for his mother-in-law and "her daughter" and ends up stumbling literally upon the remains of an old vanished rich denizen by the name of Jabez Hoggen. (One gruesome detail involves several large crabs "walking out of the body," and which the expedient narrator pockets.) Unsurprisingly, many of the selections reflect Stoker's close working relationship with the British theatrical company, as in "What They Confessed: A Low Comedian's Story," as well as glowing appreciations of actors Irving and Ellen Terry. Also included is a fascinating catalog of the items for sale at the 1913 auction of Stoker's property, especially his library, full of books by his friend Walt Whitman. A dogged but uneven work of literary excavation of most interest to literary scholars.

Kirkus Reviews