Bram Stoker's Circle of Friends
“By showing him amongst his friends and explaining who those friends are…”
-Bram Stoker in Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving
 Dame Genevieve Ward DBE 1837 - 1922 American born soprano and actress, Lucy Genevieve Teresa Ward, Bram Stoker’s first known romantic interest, would remain his dear friend, even long after his marriage to Florence Balcombe. <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/08/19/107068636.pdf">Read her NY Times Obituary </a> |  Sir Henry Irving, “The Guv’nor” 1838 - 1905 Great Shakespearean actor, born John Henry Bodribb, shown here in a painting by John Everett Millais, member of London’s Garrick Club, as were Irving and Stoker. <a href="https://snajbrt.wixsite.com/mysite/max">A fascinating perspective from actor Max Montesole </a> |  Dame Ellen Terry 1847 - 1928 Acclaimed British actress, shown here at age 16. Born into a theatre family, which included great-nephew Sir John Gielgud, she was on the stage at age eight, and joined the Lyceum Troupe in 1878, where she stayed for twenty-four years. |
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 Sir Thomas Hall Caine 1853 - 1931 “Hommy-Beg”, best-selling author, and dearest friend of Bram Stoker, to whom Dracula was dedicated <a href="http://www.hallcaine.com">The World of Hall Caine</a> |  Walt Whitman, American Poet 1819 - 1892 <a href="http://www.whitmanarchive.org/">The Walt Whitman Archive</a> <a href="https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2012/novemberdecember/feature/when-bram-met-walt">When Bram Met Walt </a> - Meredith Hindley, in HUMANITIES |  Sir Winston Churchill 1874 - 1965 British Prime minister, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/obscure2/druid.html ">'Churchill's Druids and Britain’s Satanic Prime Minister'</a> by Simon Strickland-Smith |
 Pamela Coleman Smith, a.k.a. “Pixie” 1878 - 1951 Artist, illustrator, writer <a href="http://pcs2051.tripod.com/theater.htm">Phil Norfleet’s Account of Her Lyceum Friendships</a> |  Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) 1835 - 1910 American author; like his friend Bram Stoker, enjoyed a special sense of humor. |  1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts, Angela Georgina 1814 - 1906 A leading philanthropist, supporting everything from bee-keeping and drinking fountains for dogs, to countless projects to benefit the poor, Angela was close friends with Bram. Surviving letters hint at a discreet, romantic link to Bram’s older brother, Thornley. |
 Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809 - 1892 British Poet Laureate, whom Bram first met in 1876, and held in very high esteem. Bram & Florence Stoker visited with Tennyson at his Farrington House on the Isle of Wight, not long before Tennyson’s death. |  Buffalo Bill Cody 1846 - 1917 One of the most colorful figures of the American West, Cody fought in the American Civil War and Plains War, and earned his nickname by killing prodigious numbers of buffalo. Cody made his fortune with his Wild West Show, touring the United States and Europe. He formed friendships with Bram Stoker and Henry Irving, who squired him around London. Cody was surely the basis for Texan Quincey Morris in Dracula. |  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1859 - 1930 (Photo: Robert Barr, A. Conan Doyle , Robert McClure, Miss Doyle, Mrs. Conan Doyle in 1904) Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey Scottish physician, prolific writer, and creator of detective Sherlock Holmes. A dedicated Spiritualist, Conan Doyle participated in seances and believed in faeries. <a href="http://www.sherlockholmesonline.org/">Sir Arthur Conan Doyle </a> <a href="http://www.sherlockholmes.se/2012/04/">Bram Stoker Visits Conan Doyle at Undershaw</a> |
 Sir William Schwenck Gilbert 1836 - 1911 English poet, dramatist, lyricist, illustrator & theater reviewer, a member of London’s Garrick & Beefsteak Clubs |  Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan 1842 - 1900 English musician and composer, best known for his work with W.S. Gilbert, he also wrote ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ and enjoyed horse-racing. |  Mary Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter 1859 - 1936 Red-haired American, society star who took to the stage in England and Ireland despite the social stigma. Divorced her husband and joined H. Beerbohm Tree’s theatre company. Oscar Wilde offered her the part of Salome, which she declined. |
 Baroness de Bazus 1836 - 1914 Author and publisher, born Miriam Florence Folline of New Orleans. Also known as Frank Leslie after she legally took her deceased third husband’s name. Her fourth marriage to Oscar Wilde’s brother, Willy, ended in divorce after two years. |  James Abbott McNeil Whistler 1834 - 1903 American born artist After West Point, he worked as a draftsman, entertaining himself by decorating his maps with mermaids, sea serpents, whales, etc. before establishing his art & his distinctive butterfly signature abroad. |  Theodore Roosevelt 1858 - 1919 Suffering from asthma, Roosevelt’s homebound, sickly childhood was reminiscent of Bram’s own. Bram met New York City police commissioner Roosevelt in 1895, and noted "Must be President some day. A man you can't cajole, can't frighten, can't buy." Roosevelt would be governor of New York, Vice-President, and the 26th U.S. President. His slogan was, "Speak softly and carry a big stick.” |
 Sir Philip Burne-Jones 1861 - 1926 Painted his most famous work, “The Vampire” in 1897 (see below). |  George du Maurier 1834 - 1896 French cartoonist and author of of the hugely popular Gothic horror novel, Trilby, which inspired the “Phantom of the Opera” by Leroux. He also drew the cartoon of the Stoker family at Whitby for “Punch”. |  Franz Liszt 1811 - 1886 Hungarian composer & pianist, was in the circle, though not a close friend. <a href="https://snajbrt.wixsite.com/mysite/copy-of-sir-henry-irving">See Bram's recollections of Liszt's visit to the Lyceum Theatre. </a> |
 Sir Philip Burne-Jones' 1897 painting “The Vampire” |