Dracula.

STOKER, Bram.

Item Number: 145817

New York: Doubleday & McClure Co, 1899.

First American edition of Bram Stoker’s masterpiece, the progenitor of the vampire genre which remains “arguably the most potent literary myth of the twentieth century” (Leatherdale, 11), signed by him and a host of other actors who portrayed vampires. Octavo, original pictorial beige cloth stamped in blue and gilt. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “Harry Powers from Bram Stoker 16 May 1900.” Subsequently from the collection of George W. Fuller with his bookplate to the pastedown, then Forrest “Forry” J. Ackerman who dedicated his life to building what many consider to have been the world’s largest personal collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror memorabilia. Ackerman purchased the book in the early 1950s and throughout the years had actors who had portrayed vampires, as well as other members of the horror genre, sign the book. Additionally inscribed on the front free endpaper by Bela Lugosi who starred as Count Dracula in the 1931 American film adaptation, “To my friend, Forrest Ackerman, in remembrance, Bela Lugosi” and signed by him again, “Bela Lugosi.” Additionally signed and inscribed on the front free endpaper and pastedown by over a dozen legends of horror cinema including Christopher Lee (who starred as Count Dracula in the 1958 English film adaptation), Vincent Price, Bill Obbagy, Ingrid Pitt, Karl Freund, Donald A. Reed, Barry Atwater, Maila Nurmi “Vampira”, Carla Laemmle, Carroll Borland, John Carradine, Raymond McNally, Ferdy Mayne, Paul Naschy, and Barbara Leigh. In very good condition with interior tape reinforcements to the hinges, rebacked. Housed in a custom half morocco and chemise clamshell box. A unique example, exceptionally rare and desirable signed by Stoker, Lugosi and such an assemblage of icons of the horror genre.

First published in 1897, Bram Stoker's Dracula remains "[t]he world's most influential and enduring supernatural novel of vampirism, starring the most celebrated and evocative character in macabre literature" (Dalby). Contemporary reviews compared Stoker’s masterpiece favorably to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, and Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Since then it has engendered “arguably the most potent literary myth of the twentieth century” (Leatherdale, 11). Related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles, the epistolary novel opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, investigate, hunt and kill Dracula. Dracula continues to occupy a significant position in the literary canon with a legacy of hundreds of adaptations for the stage and screen, most notably the 1931 American supernatural horror film starring Bela Lugosi and the 1958 English gothic horror film starring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula. “Bram Stoker has given us the most remarkable scenes of horror… Dracula is a panting engine of late Victorian sexuality, a sexuality that has been barely sublimated into violence” (Stephen King).