Iām delighted to offer something truly remarkable from Bayliss Rare Books: an original letter written by Bram Stoker just weeks after Dracula was published.
Itās short, sharp, and brilliantāand crucially, it names Dracula directly. Only a handful of Stoker letters do, and this is by far the most informal and revealing of them all.
Hereās what he writes:
āI send you Dracula & have honoured myself by writing your name in it. How is enclosed for high? Lord forgive me. I am quite shameless.ā
āBram Stoker, 7 July 1897
You donāt usually get this kind of personality from Stoker. Most of his Dracula lettersāwhen they surviveāare stiffly formal. This oneās different: charming, self-deprecating, and full of human energy. You can almost feel his uncertainty about the book, his wry humour about its excesses, and his pride in sending it out into the world.
This letter gives us something weāve never really had before: Stokerās own voice, responding to Dracula around the moment it entered the worldānot as an icon of horror, but as a new, uncertain work. Stoker's humorous asideāāLord forgive me. I am quite shamelessāāhas the ring of an artist knowingly pushing the boundaries of the Gothic and enjoying it. Itās theatrical, cheeky, and utterly authentic. That tone simply doesnāt appear in his other known correspondence on the subject.
The timing is extraordinary too. Itās dated July 7th, 1897ājust weeks after the bookās release on May 26thāmaking it one of the earliest surviving mentions of Dracula in Stokerās hand.
Letters like this are almost never seen on the market. The few that do mention Dracula are usually locked in institutionsāand none have quite this personality.
Itās now available for sale at Bayliss Rare Books, with price upon request. More details and images can be supplied. I suspect it wonāt hang around for long.