While everyone considers Vlad Tepes the inspiration for Dracula, Bram Stoker’s son, Irving, claimed that his father came up with the idea in a dream. Proof has been elusive for decades, since most of Stoker’s research notes were missing until they turned up at Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum & Library in 1972. Between Stoker’s death in 1912 and the reappearance of his notes, historians developed the idea that Stoker was present at a dinner party with Henry Irving and Hungarian professor Arminius Vambery—who must have talked about Vlad Tepes. The link between Dracula and Vlad III first showed up in 1958 in the work of researcher Basil Kirtley. He pointed to Abraham Van Helsing’s biography as proof of the link, and the idea was echoed again and again before being recanted by the Stoker researchers who discovered his notes.
Now that the notes have been examined, there is no evidence to suggest Vlad III had anything to do with the development of the world’s most famous vampire, but the myth persists........
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Poster Comment:
The above is just the 1st of 10 featurettes. Really interesting -- will leave you convinced the whole thing is nonexistent. Vlad Tepes was a sanguinary ruler, but it may have been mainly or only against the invading Turks. Other sources seem to agree that beating back the towelheads from Europe was one of his just claims to fame..... but of course today's information establishment doesn't want to honor anybody who'd risk everything to keep Europe Christian and the towelheads across the border. The truth is there's probably zero connection with the real person and the novel at all.