[Ryan]

I just came across these items while doing a search of Google News. This is interesting...apparently rumours had been circling about Bram Stoker's sexuality for a long time.

Has anybody seen this TV documentary? It's called "Dracula's Bram Stoker" by Ferndale Films, which has done excellent work in the past (they won a couple of Oscars for My Left Foot, I believe). How was it?

1. http://www.365gay.com/entertainment/News&Gossip/Dis.htm

Tinseltown Dis
by Flaven Ritcherson
365Gay.com Entertainment - Web page viewed March 6, 2003

Dracula was gay according to a new theory about his famous creator. An Irish TV documentary has unearthed love letters from Dracula creator Bram Stoker to gay American poet Walt Whitman and the producers say Stoker later became obsessed with gay actor and theatre owner Sir Henry Irving.

Experts now believe Irving - who became Stoker's mentor - was the inspiration for Dracula.

2. http://uk.gay.com/headlines/3887

Was Dracula author gay, speculates TV documentary
Gay.com UK - Tuesday 4 March, 2003

An Irish television programme to be aired tonight (Tuesday) suggests that both the fictitious vampire Dracula and his creator were gay.

Dracula's Bram Stoker, to be shown on Ireland's RTE1 tonight, claims that the Dublin-born creator of the story secretly loved men and that the vampire himself was also gay.
The programme suggests that Bram Stoker sent love letters to famous gay American poet Walt Whitman and became obsessed with flamboyant London actor and theatre owner Sir Henry Irving.

The show says that Irving was Stoker's mentor and the author based his infamous and sexy vampire on the famous thespian.

The author's visits to the gothic cliff top Slains Castle, near Aberdeen, which were supposed to inspire the famous story were largely fueled by homosexual fantasies, the programme alleges.

Although married and a father, there have been rumours for a hundred years about Stoker's sexuality. Many film versions of Dracula have also played up the homoerotic subtext of the elegant evening-dressed vampire biting his victim's necks.
Denis McIntyre, of the Dracula Association, said Dracula creator Bram Stoker was in awe of Henry Irving. "Irving was a very dominant personality and there's little doubt that Dracula could be partly based on him," he said.

3. http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/page.cfm?objectid=12691927&method=full&siteid=86024

DRACULA WAS GAY FANTASY
Lynne Kelleher
Glasgow Sunday Mail, UK - 01 Mar 2003

DRACULA was gay according to a new theory about his famous creator.
Bram Stoker's visits to Scotland helped inspire his Gothic horror story of the vampire.
But according to a new investigation, the author's dark tale inspired by a visit to cliff- top Slains Castle in Aberdeenshire was largely fuelled by homosexual fantasies.

Dracula's Bram Stoker - to be shown on Ireland's RTE1 on Tuesday - claims papers and letters written by Dublin- born Stoker reveal the writer secretly loved men.

The married father-of-one wrote love letters to gay US poet Walt Whitman and became obsessed with actor and theatre owner Sir Henry Irving.

Experts now believe Irving - who became Stoker's mentor - was the inspiration for Dracula,who has been portrayed in films by Christopher Lee and Bela Lugosi.

Denis McIntyre, of the Dracula Association, says Stoker was in awe of Irving.

He said: "Irving was a very dominant personality and there's little doubt Dracula could be partly based on him."

Well, I guess I'll throw him on my Rainbow Lives list...
http://rainbowlives.com

--Ryan.
_________________
Ryan Schultz, Reference Librarian
University of Manitoba Libraries
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

[Martino]

If you are interested in Bram Stoker's life I suggest that you delve into Barbara Belford's biography, which was published in 1996, and according to what I see on the Amazon website, is still in print.

Stoker was for many years the manager of Henry Irving's theater in London. Belford may be avoiding the issue of Stoker's sexuality but I don't recall that she made any hint of his being homosexual, his contacts with Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde and most of all, Irving, notwithstanding.

As an interesting sidelight, Ellen Terry, who was Irivng's leading lady, was John Gielgud's aunt. And of course, everyone knows about John Gielgud's sexuality.