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Bram Stoker (1847-1912), an Irish novelist and short story writer, was known during his lifetime as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned, but is best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. David J. Skal was one of the world's preeminent authorities on Bram Stoker, Dracula, and monsters in popular culture. His book Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen (Norton, 1990) was hailed as "the ultimate book on Dracula" by Newsweek; The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror (Norton, 1993) has had multiple translations and is widely considered the standard historical and critical survey. As a filmmaker, he wrote, produced, and directed a dozen DVD and Blu-ray documentaries on Universal's classic horror and science fiction films, as well as a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the Academy Award-winning film Gods and Monsters. Skal guest-lectured extensively at major colleges, universities, and cultural organizations in North America and Europe, with speaking engagements at sites such as the Huntington Library, the British Library, and the Musée du Louvre. He additionally taught courses based on his books at the University of Victoria and Trinity College Dublin, where he was also appointed a Long Room Hub Visiting Research Fellow for Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker (Liveright, 2016), chosen by the Mystery Writers of America as a 2017 Edgar Award finalist for biography and criticism. His official website was monstershow.net. John Edgar Browning is Professor of Liberal Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Browning has written, co-written, and co-edited over a dozen books and 75 shorter works focusing on Stoker/Dracula, vampires, zombies, horror, monstrosity, and the Gothic. His works as an editor include The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), and Dracula-An Anthology: Critical Reviews and Reactions, 1897-1920 (Edinburgh University Press) as well as acclaimed critical editions of Montague Summers's The Vampire: His Kith and Kin and The Vampire in Europe (Apocryphile Press, 2011, 2014). With Caroline Joan S. Picart, he co-edited Speaking of Monsters: A Teratological Anthology (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and co-wrote Dracula in Visual Media (McFarland, 2010); with David R. Castillo, David Schmid, and David A. Reilly he co-wrote Zombie Talk: Culture, History, Politics (Palgrave Pivot, 2016); and, with Darren Elliott-Smith, co-edited New Queer Horror Film and Television (Horror Studies) (University of Wales Press). |
