The Myth of Dracula

So no, Prince Vlad of Wallachia is not Dracula the vampire. The similarities of killing a vampire through staking and Vlad's own penchant for impalement are hard coincidences to ignore, I know, as well as the fact the Vlad's body supposedly went missing after his death, making him a prime candidate for one of the walking undead. But again, I say it again, the fictional Dracula is not Prince Vlad. It just goes to show you what a talented writer Mr. Stoker really was, since he made his evil character so believable. All writers should be so lucky.

A bit about Bram Stoker:

Abraham (Bram) Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland on November 8th 1847, the 3rd child out of 7 to civil servant Abraham Stoker and Charlotte Thornley. After suffering a long, mysterious childhood illness that left him mostly bed-ridden, Stoker attended Trinity College in Dublin. There he met Henry Irving, forging a close long-lasting relationship (27 years) with the famous actor and becoming his publicist and theatre manager and moving to London. Stoker had a cold and unhappy marriage to Florence Balcombe whose granddaughter described as "beautiful, but very anti-sex". He wrote several novels during his career, Dracula (1897), The Jewel of the Seven Stars(1903), The Lady of the Shroud(1909), The Lair of the White Worm (1911), before his death on April 20th in London in 1912.

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