Editing Dracula (section)

=== Author ===
[[Bram Stoker]] was born in [[Clontarf, Dublin]] on 8 November 1842 as the third of seven children. A sickly child, he was homeschooled before attending a private day school.{{Sfn|Miller|2005|p=7}} Stoker attended [[Trinity College Dublin]] in the 1860s and began writing theatre reviews in the early 1870s. After Stoker wrote a review of a performance by stage actor [[Henry Irving]], the two became friends. In 1878, Irving offered Stoker a job as the business manager of London's [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum Theatre]], which he accepted. He married [[Florence Stoker|Florence Balcombe]] later that year.{{Sfn|Miller|2005|p=5}} Biographer Lisa Hopkins notes that this role required Stoker to be sociable and introduced him to the elites of [[19th-century London|Victorian London]]. Nonetheless, Stoker described himself as a private person who closely guarded his thoughts.{{Sfn|Hopkins|2007|pp=4, 51}}

He supplemented his theatre income by writing [[Romance novel|romance]] and [[sensation novel]]s,{{sfn|Eighteen-Bisang|Miller|2008|p=301}}{{sfn|Belford|2002|p=269}}{{efn|Sensation fiction is a genre characterised by the depiction of scandalous events—for example murder, theft, forgery, or adultery—within domestic settings.{{sfn|Rubery|2011}}}} but was more closely identified during his lifetime with the theatre than he was with the literary world.{{Sfn|Hopkins|2007|p=4}} By the time of his death in 1912, Stoker had published 18 books.{{Sfn|Hopkins|2007|p=1}} ''Dracula'' was Stoker's seventh published book, following ''[[The Shoulder of Shasta]]'' (1895) and preceding ''[[Miss Betty]]'' (1898).{{Sfn|Belford||2002|p=363}}{{Efn|Although published in 1898, ''Miss Betty'' was written in 1890.{{Sfn|Belford|2002|p=277}}}} Stoker's grand-nephew, [[Daniel Farson]], wrote that Stoker may have died from syphilis, but this is widely disputed by scholars.{{Efn|Stoker's grand-nephew provided Bram's death certificate to his [[general practitioner]], who said the cause of death and medical language used was consistent with syphilis.{{Sfn|Miller|2005|pp=30–31}} Miller and scholar [[Robert Eighteen-Bisang]] said that the language was inconclusive.{{Sfn|Eighteen-Bisang|Miller|2008|p=300}} The syphilis theory was rejected by Stoker scholars [[Leslie Shepard]] and [[William Hughes (professor)|William Hughes]] and by Stoker's descendant, Ivan Stoker Dixon.{{Sfn|Miller|2006|pp=114–115}}}} Novelist and playwright [[Hall Caine]], a close friend of Stoker's,{{Efn|''Dracula'' is, in fact, dedicated to Caine: "To my dear friend Hommy Beg".{{Sfn|Miller|2005|pp=33–34}}}} wrote in Stoker's obituary in ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' that—besides his [[biography]] on Irving—Stoker wrote only "to sell" and "had no higher aims".{{Sfn|Caine|1912|p=16}}