Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author, best known today for his 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 Lyceum Theatre, which Irving owned. Before writing Dracula, Stoker worked as a theatre critic for an Irish newspaper and wrote stories . He married Florence Balcombe