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Note revealing Bram Stoker's early thoughts on Dracula sold
The Guardian
|April 17, 2025
He had just unleashed one of the most famed gothic horror books on the world, a blood-curdling classic that has inspired countless authors, filmmakers and video game developers.
But a rare note that Bram Stoker wrote only weeks after Dracula was published in 1897 gives a glimpse into the fun he must have had with the novel.
In the letter - addressed to an unidentified "Williams" - Stoker writes: "I send you Dracula & have honoured myself by writing your name in it... Lord forgive me. I am quite shameless. Yours ever, Bram Stoker."
Oliver Bayliss, of Bayliss Rare Books in London, who sold the letter to an as-yet-unnamed buyer yesterday for £15,000, said the note was personal and revealing.
This story is from the April 17, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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