Editing Bram Stoker (section)

==Lyceum Theatre==

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| image1            = Bram Stoker - 18 St Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea, London SW3 4QG.JPG
| image2            = BRAM STOKER 1847-1912 Author of DRACULA lived here.JPG
| caption1          = Stoker's residence at 18 St Leonard's Terrace, [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], London
| caption2          = [[Blue plaque]] at the address
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In 1878, Stoker married [[Florence Balcombe]], daughter of [[Lieutenant-colonel (British Army)|Lieutenant-Colonel]] James Balcombe of 1 Marino Crescent.  She was a celebrated beauty whose former suitor had been [[Oscar Wilde]].<ref>Irish Times, 8 March 1882, p. 5</ref> Stoker had known Wilde from his student days, having proposed him for membership of the university's Philosophical Society while he was president. Wilde was upset at Florence's decision, but Stoker later resumed the acquaintanceship, and, after Wilde's fall, visited him on the Continent.<ref name="irtimes">{{Cite web |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/0328/1224243595688.html |title=Why Dracula never loses his bite |date=28 March 2009 |website=Irish Times |access-date=1 April 2009 |archive-date=13 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013082249/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/0328/1224243595688.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Stokers moved to London, where Stoker became acting manager and then business manager of Irving's [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum Theatre]] in the [[West End theatre|West End]], a post he held for 27 years.<ref>{{cite news |title=Resurrected: Dracula author Bram Stoker's first attempts at Gothic horror |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/dec/16/bram-stoker-dracula-lost-stories |access-date=4 May 2023 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> On 31 December 1879, Bram and Florence's only child was born, a son whom they christened Irving Noel Thornley Stoker. The collaboration with Henry Irving was important for Stoker and through him, he became involved in London's high society, where he met [[James Abbott McNeill Whistler]] and [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]] (to whom he was distantly related). Working for Irving, the most famous actor of his time, and managing one of the most successful theatres in London made Stoker a notable if busy man. He was dedicated to Irving and his memoirs show he idolised him. In London, Stoker also met [[Hall Caine]], who became one of his closest friends – he dedicated ''Dracula'' to him.

In the course of Irving's tours, Stoker travelled the world, although he never visited [[Eastern Europe]], a setting for his most famous novel. Stoker enjoyed the United States, where Irving was popular. With Irving, he was invited twice to the [[White House]] and knew [[William McKinley]] and [[Theodore Roosevelt]]. Stoker set two of his novels in America and used Americans as characters, the most notable being [[Quincey Morris]]. He also met one of his literary idols, [[Walt Whitman]], having written to him in 1872 an extraordinary letter<ref>[[David J. Skal]], ''Something In The Blood: The True Story Of Bram Stoker'', Liveright, 2016, pp. 92–97.</ref> that some have interpreted as the expression of a deeply-suppressed homosexuality.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/queertheory/the-sexuality-of-bram-stoker-8aacd96cc74d|title=The queer life of Bram Stoker|first=Jonathan|last=Poletti|date=4 September 2022|website=medium.com|accessdate=19 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2873274|title="A Wilde Desire Took Me": The Homoerotic History of Dracula|author=Schaffer, Talia|year=1994|journal=ELH|volume=61|issue=2|pages=381–425|doi=10.1353/elh.1994.0019 |jstor=2873274 |s2cid=161888586 |accessdate=19 October 2022}}</ref>