Scottish Woman Who Inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula

Irish author Bram Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. Now the writers great nephew, Dacre Stoker, is investigating the influence that Scottish writer Emily Gerard (7 May 1849 – 11 January 1905) had on the novel. Particularly her collections of Transylvanian folklore researched when she  moved to Transylvania in the 1880s. As reported in BBC Scotland Dacre Stoker credits Emily Gerard with much of the superstitions which featured in his great-uncle's book. He said 

"Emily Gerard wrote an essay for the 19th Century magazine called Transylvanian Superstitions and followed it up with her book, Land Beyond the Forest.

"It gave my great-uncle a tremendous insight into the superstitions of vampires and the folklore involved with the undead - the nosferatu," he said.

"All of this, Bram got from Emily Gerard, and he was able to insert it into the book he was working on.

"She even helped him set the story in Transylvania, as he was originally setting it in Austria."

Emily Gerard was born in the Scottish town of Jedburgh (Scottish Gaelic: Deadard). In Vienna in 14 October 1869, she married Ritter Miecislaus von Laszowski a Polish cavalry officer serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Her interest and research in Transylvanian folklore came about as a result of her husband being stationed in the towns of Hermannstadt and Kronstadt from 1883 to 1885. Over the coming months Dacre Stoker and other researchers hope to discover more about Emily Gerard while also raising her profile.

Image: Christopher Lee as Dracula (1958) a Hammer Horror production