Who Will Be Great - I

If you look at ol’ Bram Stoker, Irish writer of Dracula fame, it can be quite hard to believe that any remember his name. At first just a civil servant, then he managed a London stage, doing books for Henry Irving, a great actor of the age. Then he somehow writes a novel, of a distant, cruel vampire, the critics liked the way he wrote, but the book hardly inspired. Sales were steady, but most thought it a good thriller, nothing more, if you said it was ‘Literary’ their jaws would’ve hit the floor. But the book kept going steady, it has never been out of print, Hollywood put it on the screen, and the studios made a mint! It codified a sub-genre, has defined the vampire’s ways, when modern minds think of these fiends they see Dracula to this day. Henry Irving is long forgotten, but Stoker we appreciate, modern horror is in his debt, you never know who will be great.