On May 26, 1897, visitors to bookshops in London found a new book, for just six shillings, published by Constable and Co., bound in a lurid yellow cloth cover with blood red letters announcing its strange title, Dracula. For six shillings, readers discovered a story told in letters and diary entries, about an undead Transylvanian …
The Rosenbach is the home of Bram Stoker’s Notes for Dracula, over 100 pages of outlines, early plot ideas, and research notes, compiled by the author over the seven years he developed and wrote the book. Content of these Notes will be featured in our conversations every week. These Notes provide an extraordinary look at …
The Rosenbach was delighted to have writer/actor/director Mark Gatiss visit in June to shoot scenes for his In Search of Dracula documentary, which was just released on the BBC. Along with Stephen Moffat, Gatiss created a new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula which aired on the BBC over the first three days of the new …
When we think of Edgar Allan Poe, we think of his horror tales. His face is the icon of macabre fiction. And so when we see that he once wrote a tale about a mummy, we expect the full panoply of a monster story: Egyptian curses, the dead revivified, perhaps a monstrous beetle that devours …
On November 14, 1851, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, or the Whale was published by Harper Bros. in the United States. Although not well-received by the critics and reading public at the time, this novel is now recognized as a masterpiece of literature. The Rosenbach has a substantial collection of Melville’s letters and first edition of his …
‘Tis the season for some Dickens—and at the Rosenbach, we have several programs that highlight our collection of Charles Dickens books and more. On November 30, our A Christmas Carol Course begins and runs for two consecutive Thursdays (Nov 30 and Dec 7). The Course ties in with a two-actor adaptation of A Christmas Carol by the …
Dracula takes over the Rosenbach in November, which is not only appropriate because of our exhibition, Frankenstein & Dracula: Gothic Monsters, Modern Science, but also because November 8 is Bram Stoker’s birthday. Here’s what we have on tap: November 9, join us as we celebrate the new issue of the Journal of Dracula Studies. Editors …
This post was first published on November 6, 2015, adapted from a piece the author wrote for the Las Vegas Weekly in 2009.We re-post it again this week in honor of our Edgar Allan Poe Reading Group, which will meet over the next three Saturdays in July. Each session focuses on a different set of stories and …
On July 19, we’ll host three mystery writers who live in the Philadelphia area for a panel discussion of their craft. Merry Jones is the author of the popular Philadelphia-based Zoe Hayes mysteries, including The Nanny Murders, The River Killings, The Deadly Neighbors, and The Borrowed and Blue Murders. Her most recent book is Child’s Play. Jon McGoran is the author of eight …
The first American publication of a Jane Austen novel was an edition of Emma published by Matthew Carey in Philadelphia in 1816. The novel, Austen’s fourth, had been published in London in December 1815, but dated 1816 on its cover page. American readers did not have to wait long to read the novel that Sir Walter …