Abraham Stoker was born near Dublin in 1847. He was virtually bedridden with an unidentified illness until the age of seven. After graduating from Trinity College, he followed his father into a career as a civil servant, writing journalism and short stories in his spare time. In 1876 he met the actor Henry Irving and, two years later, became manager of Irving’s Lyceum Theatre in London. Stoker met his wife, Florence Balcombe, through Oscar Wilde’s parents. He wrote many books, including The Lair of the White Worm (1911), but Dracula (1897) remains his most celebrated. He died in 1912.