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Bram Stoker\u2019s private journal -in which he sketched out his first thoughts about his legendary creation Dracula -has been unearthed after more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
The thin, unmarked book was discovered on a shelf in his great-grandson\u2019s home on the Isle of Wight. It had been passed down by his ancestors for more than a century before arriving in Noel Dobbs\u2019 home.<\/p>\n
He was unaware of what the book was until a US researcher contacted him to ask if he knew about a journal his famous relative had written.<\/p>\n
Dobbs then dug out the tiny tome which was signed \u2018Abraham Stoker\u2019. There were 305 entries dating from 1871 when Stoker was in his 20s. Some are pages long, with others just a few sentences. The journal also contains romantic poems.<\/p>\n
He sent photocopies of a few pages to his cousin, Dacre Stoker, a professor in South Carolina, who has now written a book about his famous ancestor based on the journal.<\/p>\n
\u2018When I saw it, I was amazed. \u2018I thought, \u201cThe Holy Grail! We\u2019ve found it,\u201d\u2009\u2019 said Mr Stoker.<\/p>\n
\u2018There is so little written by Bram about Bram. Family, scholars and fans wanted to know what made the man who wrote Dracula tick. And here we had a major set of clues.\u2019<\/p>\n
His book, The Lost Journal, will be published next March to mark the centenary of the author\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
The last entry of Stoker\u2019s journal in 1881 hints at a major character he would use in Dracula, a man who was driven to eat living things including flies. One passage says: \u2018A man builds up his shadow on a wall bit by bit by adding to substance. Suddenly the shadow becomes alive.\u2019<\/p>\n