A vampire blog by award-winning author Andrew Barger, editor of THE BEST VAMPIRE STORIES 1800-1849, which posts classic vampire stories. Check out the anthology at AndrewBarger.com
Monday, February 17, 2014
Who Was the First Englishman to Write a Vampire Short Story?
The first Englishman to write a vampire story was John Polidori. He was a physician and traveled with Lord Byron as his personal doctor. He was with Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley when they made their famous dare about who could write a supernatural story. Mary, of course, would go on to write Frankenstein and Percy had nightmares about his tale, as recounted in BlooDeath: The Best Vampire Short Stories 1800-1849. Lord Byron started a fragment that he never finished. Polidori wrote "The Vampyre" in 1819 and in it he included Lord Byron as the evil vampire Lord Ruthven after a bad falling out with Lord Byron. Polidori's story became one of the best vampire stories for the fist half of the 19th century.
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