Books

Boston: Munroe and Francis, 1819. First/Early. Very Good. The Atheneum; Or, Spirit of the English Magazines, Vol. V, April to October 1819. Containing one of the first U. S. printings of The Vampyre, here falsly attributed to Lord Byron. The Vampyre is the first vampire tale in English and was the result of the same competition between Byron, the Shelley's, and others that resulted in Frankenstein. Adapted by John Polidori, from the tale of Lord Byron's. The work was originally published on 1 April 1819 by Henry Colburn in The New Monthly Magazine. Here it was falsly attributed to Lord Byron to capitalize on his celebrity. By July, Lord Byron had emphatically denied authorship, and by August, Polidori was correctly listed as author. This edition contains the history of that progression. The publication is from the June issue and is fully attributed to Byron. In the July section is a short letter from Polidori asserting authorship and describing, "attributing that tale, in its…

The Vampyre was written by John William Polidori in 1819. It is considered one of the first modern vampire stories and was inspired by a story fragment written by Lord Byron during the famous 1816 gathering at the Villa Diodati, where Mary Shelley also conceived Frankenstein. Polidori's novella introduced the aristocratic vampire archetype, which influenced later vampire literature, including Bram Stoker's Dracula.