Gothic art 19th century
Bram Stoker, birth name Abraham Stoker, is an Irish writer, theater business manager and critic.
Stoker attended Dublin University and Trinity College, where he studied mathematics. He served for ten years at Dublin Castle and also worked as a drama critic for the Dublin Evening Mail (later Evening Mail) newspaper, where he met the actor Sir Henry Irving. From 1878 until Irving's death 27 years later, Stoker was his manager and accompanied him on his American tours, and later published his biography.
Stoker became world famous for his gothic horror novel Dracula, which was first published in 1897. The theme of mysterious and romantic vampires was and still is very popular in society. Stoker's novel has been reprinted many times, and the story itself has inspired countless interpretations and screen adaptations. Stoker wrote several other novels, including The Mystery of the Sea (1902), The Jewel of the Seven Stars (1903), and The Lady with the Shroud (1909).
George Watterston is an American politician, author and journalist.
He graduated from the Charlotte Hall Military Academy with a law degree. But, apparently, he soon became so disappointed in the profession that he began to write poetry and prose, in which he portrayed lawyers in a very unsightly form. His first novel "The Lawyer, or The Man as he ought not to be" Watterston published in 1808. This poignant novel is ostensibly a confession of a corrupt lawyer and seducer in the spirit of Stephen Burroughs' Memoirs of Stephen Burroughs. Watterston's ironic take on the didactic novel straddles the line between Charles Brockden Brown's gothic thrillers and dark comedy. He also wrote the novel Glencarne or the Disappointments of Youth (1810), the play Child of Sentiment (1809), and the poem Scenes of Youth (1813), among others.
After the end of the War of 1812, President James Madison appointed Watterston as Librarian of Congress, the third person to hold the position and the first to be solely responsible for it. He held the position from 1815 to 1829.
In 1813, Watterston became editor of the Washington City Gazette. And after his dismissal from Congress, he became editor of the National Journal. He continued a productive literary and journalistic career until his death.
Sally Wood, full name Sarah Sayward Barrell Keating Wood, is an American author.
In her long life, Sally wrote four novels and one collection of fairy tales. She is considered the first American writer of gothic fiction. She signed her novels "The Lady from Massachusetts" or "The Lady from Maine". The first, entitled Julia and the Enlightened Baron, was published in 1800.