Bram Stoker and Whitby

Bram Stoker found some of his inspiration for Dracula after staying in the town. He stayed in a house on the West Cliff (the Crescent).

Stoker found a general history book at the Whitby Library (which was near the Quayside originally). He tells us so at the top of a sheet of his notes taken from William Wilkinson's 'An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia' (1820).

He adds the following: "Whitby Library 0.1097." We can assume that this is the call number for the book.

These notes contain the only reference to Dracula (the historical figure) in all of Stoker's papers. There seems to be little doubt that Whitby is where he discovered the name. There is no evidence that he found any more information about him anywhere else. He may have, but there is nothing to suggest it in his notes or in the novel itself.

It is fairly certain that Stoker found material in the British Museum in London. His name is listed among famous people who researched there. Stoker lists in his Notes over thirty source books for the novel. Though none of them deals with Dracula, they include books on Transylvania, folklore and other relevant topics. According to what's in his Notes, Stoker relied quite heavily on some of them.

For those interested, a fully annotated and explicated facsimile edition of Stoker's Notes for Dracula (prepared by Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Elizabeth Miller) will be published by McFarland in 2008. This should be of help to scholars (and Dracula fanatics!) who are unable to go to Philadelphia to see the original Notes. Watch this space!