Bram Stoker’s descendant Dacre Stoker visiting Romania 19-28 November, planning Travel Guide book

MUNICH - Nov. 15, 2013 - PRLog -- Due to the popularity of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” novel, Romania over the past decades has become a travel goal for countless tourists wishing to see the places linked to his famous vampire story. Until today, the Stoker family has abstained from getting involved in these activities. This is going to change now, as Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew Dacre Stoker is teaming up with the Dutch author and photographer Hans Corneel de Roos to create a “Dracula Bram Stoker Travel Guide.” The planned guide book will lead to a number of places not decribed in “Dracula”-related travel literature before, like the places where Bram Stoker grew up and lived in Dublin, the true location the Irish novelist had in mind for his imaginary "Castle Dracula" or the “Scholomance,” the mysterious Devil’s School where the Vampire Count learned his black magic. It wil also deal with the obscured identities of Professor Abraham van Helsing of Amsterdam, and his friends Dr. Vincent and Vanderpool, characters in Stoker's plot, and other mysteries in the novel.

The true sites of "Castle Dracula" and the "Scholomance" in the Kelemen Mountains and in the Cindrel Mountains respectively were discovered by De Roos in the course of a private research project, using old military maps from Bram Stoker's times and the novelist's own handwritten notes for the novel.

Because these places are situated in protected natural parks in Romania, the authors of the planned Travel Guide intend to collaborate with existing Romanian tourist sites already associated with the “Dracula” novel. From 19-28 November 2013, Dacre Stoker and Hans Corneel de Roos, joined by Travel Channel film producer Aaron Sagers, will visit Romania to meet with their partners. In addition to the travel guide book, the team is producing a complementary TV series that will follow their journey.

Partners in the project include the Hotel Castel Dracula in the Borgo Pass, the Habsburg family as the owners of Bran Castle near Braşov, the Mihai Eminescu Trust in Sighişoara and the Transilvanian Society of Dracula in Bucharest. Additionally, a meeting with the Ministry of Tourism in Bucharest is planned, as well as a lecture at the prestigious Samuel-von-Brukenthal Grammar School in Sibiu.

There will be two public press conferences: In Hotel Castel Dracula on Friday 22 November 2013 at 1 pm and at Bran Castle on Monday 25 November 2013 at 2 pm. Press and TV teams will also be attending during a day trip together with Caroline Fernolend of the Mihai Eminescu Trust on Sunday 24 November 2013.

During these events, De Roos will also present his conclusion that in the end, Bram Stoker did not want to link his fictional Vampire Count to the historical Wallachian leader Vlad III Dracula "the Impaler". Instead, the famous novel refers to an "other" of the Dracula race, who de Roos identified as Michael the Brave (1558-1601), who fought back the Turks as far as Adrianople in 1595. As a consequence, the planned Travel Guide book will add new places to the list of "Dracula" tourist sites.

Project partners in the United Kingdom include the London-based Dracula Society and the Whitby Literary and Philosphical Society.

More information about the Travel Guide team’s trip and about the planned Guide Book can be found at the official Website www.dractravel.com.

An overview of press articles which appeared in the Romanian press since 13 November 2013: www.dractravel.com/1_book/press.htm

Link to travel schedule: Click here to download .pdf file (87 kB)

Currently, the authors are discussing exclusive rights to their book content and travel story with various international publishers.

Biographical background information:

Dacre Stoker, being the great-grandson of Bram Stoker’s youngest brother, Dr. George Stoker, is the great-grandnephew of the author of "Dracula".

Dacre Stoker was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1958, and studied Education and Physical Education at university in the United States. He participated in the sport of Modern Pentathlon for 15 years, first as an athlete and eventually a coach in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Since then he has been a teacher in Physical Education and Health Science. He teaches CPR and First Aid and is also a Director of a Land Conservation organization. He leads fellow fly-fisherman on adventures to western US and Canada, and teaches the unique sport of court tennis.

Dacre has travelled to cities in England, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada, and Argentina to present his lecture “Stoker on Stoker”, and to be interviewed for television, radio, and print media. He recently returned to England to film a documentary on vampires in pop culture for the Canadian History Channel and has traveled to Germany to appear on a popular television show about people with famous relatives.

He is a member of the North American chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula and of the Horror Writers Association.

He currently lives in South Carolina with his wife Jenne. They have two children, Bellinger (24) and  Parker (21).

Hans Corneel de Roos is a Dutch photographer, author and specialist for 19th century art and culture. His interest in the background of Bram Stoker’s "Dracula" developed from creating his own illustrated edition of the novel, incorporating the first "Dracula" photo story worldwide ("The Ultimate Dracula", Moonlake Editions, Munich, 2012, ISBN 978-3943559002).

Intending to include some maps as an additional illustration, De Roos noticed that the locations mentioned in Stoker’s plot had not sufficiently been researched. After discovering the true location of the fictitious "Castle Dracula" from old military maps and the writer’s own handwritten notes in January 2012, De Roos decided to travel to Transylvania, together with Lakshmi Sinclair, a Florida journalist. During this trip, he photographed the Kelemen Izvor mountain top picked by Stoker as the site of the Vampire’s stronghold, and visited Klausenburg, Bistritz, Vereşti, Suceava, Târgovişte, Poenari, Sibiu, Sighişoara and Mediaş.

Four more extensive Romanian trips followed, covering all locations related to Stoker’s famous narrative. In June 2013, he discovered the true location of "Lake Hermanstadt", the site of the Scholomance (Devil’s School) as mentioned in Dracula. His collaboration with Dacre Stoker commenced during the Stoker Centenary Conference in London, April 2012.

Born in Bandung, Indonesia in 1956 as a son of Dutch parents, de Roos grew up in Amsterdam. He studied Political and Social Sciences in Amsterdam and at the Freie Universität, Berlin. Besides these studies, he actively engaged in photography, sculpture, theatre and performance.

Besides Amsterdam and Berlin, de Roos lived in London, New York, Vienna and Budapest. Since 1986, he is based in Munich.

He has twin sons, Dylan and Floyd (21).

Aaron Sagers is a professional film producer for Travel Channel and MTV. Moreover, he is very knowledgeable about vampires, zombies, ghosts and aliens in modern pop culture. He has been travelling the USA talking about pop culture at numerous fan conventions such as San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con, Wizard World, Dragon Con and more. Sagers is also the founder of Paranormal Pop Culture, an entertainment news site that explores horror, supernatural and all elements of the paranormal. He is the author of  Paranormal Pop Culture: Rambling and Shambling Through the Entertainment of the Unexplained, and is an adjunct professor of Journalism at NYU in New York City.