The London Library unveiled that they have found some of the books they believe Bram Stoker used as research while writing the classic novel, “Dracula.” Discovered by the Library’s Development Director Philip Spedding, 26 of the books identified as part of Stoker’s research were still on library shelves and featured notes and markings believed to have been written by Stoker himself.
“Bram Stoker was a member of The London Library but until now we have had no indication whether or how he used our collection,” said Spedding according to the London Library’s announcement. “Today’s discovery changes that and we can establish beyond reasonable doubt that numerous books still on our shelves are the very copies that he was using to help write and research his masterpiece.”
The discovery came thanks to detective work done by Spedding using a facsimile of Stoker’s handwritten and typed notes that were published in 2008. The notes, which were first discovered in 1913, listed a number of the sources used to write “Dracula” and that list was used to search the shelves of the London Library for evidence that their books were used. In the end, the library uncovered 26 books carrying detailed markings that closely match Stoker’s accounts of his research.
Of the most heavily marked books were Sabine Baring-Gould’s “Book of Were-Wolves” and Thomas Browne’s “Pseudodoxica Epidemica”. A full list of the books uncovered can be seen below:
- Nineteenth Century XVIII, Mme Emily de Laszowka Gerard, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co, July 1885
- The Book of Were-Wolves, Sabine Baring-Gould, Smith, Elder and Co, 1886
- Pseudodoxia Epidemica,Thomas Browne, 1672
- Magyarland, Nina Elizabeth Mazuchelli, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1881
- The Golden Chersonese, Isabella Bird, John Murray, 1883
- Round about the Carpathians, AF Crosse, Blackwoods, 1878
- On the Track of Crescent, Major EC Johnson, Hurst & Blackett, 1885
- Transylvania: Its Products and Its People, Charles Boner, Longman, Green, Reader & Dyer, 1865
- An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, William Wilkinson, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1820
- Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (2 vol), Sabine Baring-Gould, Rivington, 1868
- Germany Past and Present (2 vol), Sabine Baring-Gould, C Kegan Paul & Co, 1879
- Legends & Superstitions of the Sea, Bassett
- The Origin of Primitive Superstitions, Dorman, Lippincott, 1881
- Credulities Past & Present, W Jones, Chatto & Windus, 1880
- The Folk-Tales of The Magyars, The Rev W Henry Jones and Lewis L. Kropf, The Folk-Lore Society, 1889
- Superstition & Force, HC Lea, Lea Brothers & Co, 1892
- Sea Fables Explained, Henry Lee, William Cloves & Sons, 1883
- Anecdotes of the Habits and Instincts of Birds, Reptiles and Fishes, Mrs R Lee, Grant & Griffith, 1853
- The Other World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural. Being Facts, Records, and Traditions, FG Lee, Henry S King & Co, 1875
- Letters on the Truths Contained in Popular Superstitions, Herbert Mayo, Blackwood, 1849
- The Devil: His Origin, Greatness and Decadence, Rev Albert Réville, Williams & Norgate, 1871
- A Tarantasse Journey through Eastern Russia in the Autumn of 1856, W Spottiswode, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts
- Miscellany, W Spottiswode
- Traité des Superstitions qui Regardent les Sacraments (4 vol), Jean-Baptiste Thiers, Louis Chambeau, 1777
- The Phantom World: or, The Philosophy of Spirits, Apparitions &c. (2 vol), Augustin Calmet, Richard Bentley, 1850
- The Land Beyond the Forest (2 vol), E Gerard, William Blackwood & Sons, 1888
