History
TSD was founded in the early 1990s by a group of writers, Romanian scholars, tourism experts, and others interested in Dracula and vampire folklore in Romania. Taking the lead was Nicolae Paduraru, formerly with the Romanian Ministry of Tourism. Paduraru died in May 2009 [5]
In May 1995, the TSD chapter in Romania organized the first World Dracula Congress. This event attracted scholars and aficionados from many countries. The list of speakers included some of the world's leading experts in the field, such as Gordon Melton, Elizabeth Miller, Matei Cazacu and Clive Leatherdale. The congress marked the first time when Romanian folklorists have the opportunity to share their knowledge and research in both the vampire legend and the history of Vlad Tepes with their counterparts in the West. [6]
During the conference both the American and the Canadian chapter were established by J. Gordon Melton and Elizabeth Miller [7] respectively. The North American chapter is now housed at Pennsylvania's Kutztown University who publishes The Journal of Dracula Studies each year. Edited by Dr Anne DeLong and Dr Curt Herr, the peer-reviewed journal publishes essays on Vampire Studies from around the world. A short time later, an Italian chapter was founded by Massimo Introvigne, and since 2001, there is a German chapter [8] run by Dr. Mark Benecke. In 2006 a Russian Chapter was opened. It is run by Mrs. Ekaterina Buley.
Recent developments
The Canadian Chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula was formed in 1995 following the first World Dracula Congress in Romania, as non-profit corporation. It published the MLA indexed Journal of Dracula Studies, [9] with Elizabeth Miller as Chief Editor. It also published The Borgo Post, as a magazine for its members.
By the end of 2013, Dracula scholar Hans Corneel de Roos revived Letter from Castle Dracula, the news bulletin of the Romanian mother organization, and in cooperation with Daniela Diaconescu, Vice President of the T.S.D., published six illustrated issues with fresh research. Two years later, de Roos took the initiative to organize the Fourth World Dracula Congress, [10] marking the T.S.D.'s 25 anniversary, in cooperation with Trinity College, Dublin. Co-organizers were Dr. Magdalena Grabias from Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland; Daniela Diaconescu, Bucharest, and (initially) Kristin Bone from San Diego, California. The conference took place on 20–21 October 2016, with Saturday 22 October dedicated to a Stoker-oriented walk through Dublin.
Although the international conference had an impressive roster of speakers and was considered a success, the inner circle of the T.S.D. in Bucharest decided not to follow up with further activities; instead, it subsumed itself under the North American Chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula (TSD), formed at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania in 2016. [11] The editorial seat of the Journal of Dracula Studies by now has been transferred to Kutztown University's English department, with Curt Herr and Anne DeLong as editors. The German, Italian and Russian chapters of the T.S.D not being active anymore, De Roos stepped back from his position at Letter from Castle Dracula and together with Magadalena Grabias initiated an independent international Dracula conference series ("Children of the Night" series) [12] in cooperation with Transilvania University, Brașov. The first of these bi-annual conferences took place in October 2016; the series is supported by a "Children of the Night" Facebook group with 400 members.
The archive of Letter from Castle from Castle Dracula (23 December 2013 till 30 June 2016) is now hosted by The Vampire's Vault, a website managed by De Roos. [13]
Abraham Stoker was an Irish author who is best known for writing the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and business manager of the West End's Lyceum Theatre, which Irving owned.
Dracula is a gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker, published on 26 May 1897. An epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and 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.
Largely as a result of the success of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Transylvania has become a popular setting for gothic horror fiction, and most particularly vampire fiction. In some later books and movies Stoker's Count Dracula was conflated with the historical Vlad III Dracula, known as Vlad the Impaler (1431–1476), who though most likely born in the Transylvanian city of Sighișoara, ruled over neighboring Wallachia.
Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in 1476/77. He is often considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania.
Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker is a fictional character and the main female character in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula.
The Scholomance was a fabled school of black magic in Romania, especially in the region of Transylvania. It was run by the Devil, according to folkloric accounts. The school enrolled about ten students to become the Solomonari. Courses taught included the speech of animals and magic spells. One of the graduates was chosen by the Devil to be the Weathermaker and tasked with riding a dragon to control the weather.
Corvin Castle, also known as Hunyadi Castle or Hunedoara Castle, is a Gothic-Renaissance castle in Hunedoara, Romania. It is considered one of the largest castles in Europe and is featured as one of the Seven Wonders of Romania.
Jonathan Harker is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. An English solicitor, his journey to Transylvania and encounter with the vampire Count Dracula and his Brides at Castle Dracula constitutes the dramatic opening scenes in the novel and most of the film adaptations.
The Dracula Society is a London-based literature and travel group with an interest in supernatural and macabre works of fiction, as exemplified by Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Count Dracula is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula. He is considered the prototypical and archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some to have been inspired by the 15th-century Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler, who was also known as Vlad Dracula, and by Sir Henry Irving, an actor for whom Stoker was a personal assistant.
Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula, alternately titled Dracula: The Dark Prince and Dark Prince: Legend of Dracula, is a horror-war television film, which premiered in the United States on the USA Network on Halloween, October 31, 2000. It is about Vlad III Dracula, "the Impaler", the historical figure who gave Bram Stoker's Dracula his name.
"Dracula's Guest" is a short story by Bram Stoker, first published in the short story collection Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories (1914). It is believed to have been intended as the first chapter for Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, but was deleted prior to publication as the original publishers felt it was superfluous to the story.
Elizabeth Russell Miller was a Professor Emerita at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She resided in Toronto. In her early academic career, she focused on Newfoundland literature, primarily the life and work of her father, well-known Newfoundland author and humorist Ted Russell. Beginning in 1990, her major field of research was Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, its author, sources and influence. She published several books on the subject, including Reflections on Dracula, Dracula: Sense & Nonsense, a volume on Dracula for the Dictionary of Literary Biography and, most recently, Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula: A Facsimile Edition with Robert Eighteen-Bisang. She founded the Dracula Research Centre and was the founding editor of the Journal of Dracula Studies now at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.
Castle Dracula is the fictitious Transylvanian residence of Count Dracula, the vampire antagonist in Bram Stoker's 1897 horror novel Dracula. It is the setting of the first few and final scenes of the novel.
Dracula tourism is a type of cultural tourism involving travel to sites associated with Dracula and his real or imaginary travels. There is Dracula tourism mainly in Transylvania, Romania.
The Lord Ruthven Award is an annual award presented by the Lord Ruthven Assembly, a group of academic scholars specialising in vampire literature and affiliated with the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA).
Robert Eighteen-Bisang was a Canadian author and scholar who was one of the world's foremost authorities on vampire literature and mythology.
Bibliography of works on Dracula is a listing of non-fiction literary works about the book Dracula or derivative works about its titular vampire Count Dracula.
Powers of Darkness is an anonymous 1899 Swedish version of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, serialised in the newspaper Dagen and credited only to Bram Stoker and the still-unidentified "A—e."
Powers of Darkness is a 1901 Icelandic book by Valdimar Ásmundsson that claims to be a translation of Dracula, by Bram Stoker. It was based upon an earlier adaptation of Dracula, the Swedish adaptation of the same name by "A—e", specifically the shortened version. Both versions differ significantly from Dracula as published in English and are believed to have used an early draft of Stoker's novel as partial basis for the translation.
