![]() He was originally Lord Byron’s personal physician, who traveled with him in Switzerland. Perhaps the most prevalent one is that Polidori did not at first set out to be a writer. Though Polidori’s Lord Ruthven rose to fame and became one of the most important figures for studying the roots of our contemporary idea of the vampire, Polidori himself remained in obscurity for several reasons. This tale is John William Polidori’s The Vampyre. While big names such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula come to mind when thinking about the vampire legend, it is easy to overlook the tale that solidified these legends and presented to the world of literature the dark, brooding, mysterious, and somewhat Romantic figure that we recognize as the vampire today. They even play a huge role in popular culture today, and vampire mythology has been explored in literature, movies, and many other forms of media. Vampires have inspired human imagination for centuries. As part of a research project in Michael Laird’s class “Studies in the Book Arts,” Miller studied a first edition of John William Polidori’s The Vampyre. She is studying to become a teen services librarian, but has many other interests, including nineteenth-century British literature, vampires, rare books, and anything to do with the Victorian Era. Molly Miller is a graduate student in the School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin. ![]() Page from first edition of “The Vampyre” by John William Polidori. ![]()
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