Timeline

Life

Born at 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf, the third of seven children.

Life

Bedridden with an unexplained illness until about the age of seven.

Life

Enters Trinity College Dublin.

Life

Named University Athlete; wins the seven-mile walk in College Park. Borrows books from Marsh’s Library.

Writing

Civil service work at Dublin Castle, continuing until he joins Irving in 1878. His 1911 Royal Literary Fund letter gives 1865 as his start; Trinity Writers gives 1866. Sources differ on the year he began.

Life

BA, Trinity College Dublin.

Writing

Becomes unpaid theatre critic of the Dublin Evening Mail. Starts the journal later published as The Lost Journal.

Writing

Composes the Whitman letter later sent in 1876. “The Crystal Cup” published.

Life

Briefly edits The Irish Echo, later renamed The Halfpenny Press.

Life

Founder member of the Dublin Sketching Club.

Life

MA, Trinity College Dublin.

Theatre

Sends the earlier letter to Whitman. His father dies. The Irving Hamlet review and dinner begin their friendship. In August Oscar Wilde describes the girl usually identified as Florence Balcombe in a letter as “an exquisitely pretty girl”.

Writing

Becomes Inspector of Petty Sessions. Irving takes over the Lyceum and offers Bram the post of acting manager. Marries Florence Balcombe on 4 December and moves to London. On 3 October Wilde writes to Florence before her marriage, asking for the return of his gold cross.

Writing

The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland published. Son Irving Noel Thornley Stoker born on 30 December.

Writing

Under the Sunset published (dated 1882).

Life

Awarded the Royal Humane Society’s bronze medal for a Thames rescue attempt. The family is living at Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.

Theatre

First Lyceum tour of North America.

Life

Meets Walt Whitman for the first time, at Thomas Donaldson’s home in Philadelphia, in March 1884.

Writing

A Glimpse of America published.

Writing

Begins Dracula notes and visits Whitby. Arrives in late July at 6 Royal Crescent; Florence and Noel join about a week later. Signs the Whitby Museum visitors’ book on 19 August. The Subscription Library was below the Museum on Pier Road. Museum evidence. The Snake’s Pass and “Gibbet Hill” appear; called to the English Bar.

Life

Repeated summer stays at Cruden Bay. The University of Aberdeen’s guide dates the first visit to 1892, citing the Buchan Observer.

Writing

Irving knighted, the first actor to be so honoured. The Watter’s Mou’ and The Shoulder of Shasta published. Oscar Wilde is arrested on 5 April and convicted on 25 May.

Writing

Copyright reading of Dracula: or The Un-Dead at the Lyceum.

Writing

Oscar Wilde is released from prison, the day after the copyright reading of Dracula.

Writing

Dracula published by Archibald Constable.

Writing

Charlotte Stoker writes to Bram praising Dracula. Read the surviving letter.

Writing

Jane Stoddard’s interview with Bram about Dracula appears in the British Weekly. Read Bram on Dracula.

Writing

Fire destroys the Lyceum’s stored scenery. Miss Betty published.

Writing

Irving hands the Lyceum to a syndicate. First US edition of Dracula (Doubleday & McClure). Hamilton Deane joins Irving’s Lyceum company.

Life

Oscar Wilde dies in Paris.

Writing

Abridged paperback Dracula. His mother Charlotte dies.

Writing

The Mystery of the Sea published. Lyceum closes as Irving’s theatre.

Writing

The Jewel of Seven Stars published.

Theatre

Irving’s last American tour.

Writing

Irving dies in Bradford. The Man published.

Writing

Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving published. Bram suffers a first stroke. Moves to 4 Durham Place, Chelsea.

Writing

Interviews Churchill, Conan Doyle, Gilbert and Pinero for the New York World and Daily Chronicle. Snowbound and Lady Athlyne published. In September 1908 Bram publishes “The Censorship of Fiction” in The Nineteenth Century and After.

Writing

Bram’s interview with Arthur Conan Doyle is published in The World, New York.

Writing

The Lady of the Shroud published.

Writing

Famous Impostors published.

Writing

The Lair of the White Worm published. Writes to the Royal Literary Fund on 25 February requesting help; receives £100, with a signed receipt dated 9 March. Read about the letter.

Life

Dies at 26 St George’s Square, Pimlico. Cremated at Golders Green.

Life

Florence sells Bram’s library and Dracula notes at Sotheby’s.

Life

Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Stories published by Florence.

Writing

Further Sotheby’s sales disperse books, manuscripts and pictures. Explore the archive history.

Stage and screen

Nosferatu premieres in Berlin on 4 March without permission. In April Florence Stoker joins the Society of Authors to take legal action. Read the case history.

Stage and screen

Hamilton Deane’s licensed stage Dracula opens in Derby.

Stage and screen

A German court orders the negative and prints of Nosferatu destroyed. Some survive.

Stage and screen

Deane’s Dracula opens in London at the Little Theatre on 14 February, later moving to the Duke of York’s, the Prince of Wales and the Garrick (392 performances in all). The Deane–Balderston version opens on Broadway on 5 October with Bela Lugosi.

Stage and screen

Universal buys the film rights to the novel and the stage play.

Stage and screen

Universal’s Dracula with Lugosi.

Life

Florence Stoker dies.

Stage and screen

Hamilton Deane’s Dracula plays at the Lyceum, with Deane as the Count.

Legacy

Hammer’s Dracula with Christopher Lee.

Life

Noel Stoker dies; his ashes join his father’s at Golders Green.

Legacy

Rosenbach Museum buys Bram’s Dracula notes.

Legacy

In Search of Dracula by McNally and Florescu popularises the link with Vlad III (a link later challenged by other scholars); a wave of scholarship follows.

Legacy

Blue plaque unveiled at 18 St Leonard’s Terrace.

Stage and screen

Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Legacy

Dracula centenary.

Life

Centenary of Bram’s death. The Lost Journal published. First Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin.

Stage and screen

Gibbet Hill rediscovery announced. Dracula Returns to Derby marks a century of the licensed stage adaptation. Robert Eggers’s Nosferatu released.

Stage and screen

Montblanc’s Writers Edition Homage to Bram Stoker (1 July). Dior’s Dracula Book Tote. Hammer’s 4K restoration of the 1958 film. Cynthia Erivo’s Dracula in the West End. Leeds University’s Quite Shameless exhibition opens.