In near fine condition with Polidori’s name in faint ink inscribed on the title page.

With the earlier misprint of “lmost” on the last line of page 36 which is often corrected, the preface in its uncorrected state, and the half title page which is often not present. The second Sherwood, Neely and Jones issue with the offending title and half title pages reset and the rest of the book consisting of sheets from the first Colburn issue (Viets, 101-102). Item Number: 95359įirst edition of “the first vampire story in English literature”, the first issue to remove Lord Byron’s name from the title page, the earliest obtainable issue and the first issue widely available to the public (all previous issues were suppressed to remove the incorrect authorship attribution to Byron). Although his death was recorded as death by natural causes, strong evidence asserts that it was suicide by means of cyanide.POLIDORI, John William (Lord Byron). John William Polidori died on 24th August 1821, at the age of only 25, in London. Polidori also had published ‘Ximenes, The Wreath & Other Poems’ in 1819 and his long theological and sacred poem ‘The Fall of the Angels’ in 1821, as well as two plays, essays and his diary.ĭespite his youth Polidori was increasingly worn down by gambling debts and depression. Much to the annoyance of both Polidori and Byron, it was the latter who was credited as author. His story, ‘The Vampyre’, was published in the April 1819 issue of New Monthly Magazine without his permission. There were to be two outstanding works from that evening: ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley and Polidori’s ‘The Vampyre’, which would be the first published modern vampire story in English.ĭismissed by Byron, Polidori traveled in Italy and then returned to England. One night in June, after the company had read aloud from a French collection of German horror tales, Byron suggested they each write a ghost story. At the Villa Diodati, Byron’s rented villa at Lake Geneva in Switzerland, the pair met with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont. The publisher John Murray offered Polidori £500 to keep a diary of their travels. In 1816 Dr Polidori was given the job of Byron’s personal physician and accompanied him on a trip through Europe. In 1810 he proceeded to the University of Edinburgh, where he wrote a thesis on sleepwalking and received his degree as a doctor of medicine on 1st August 1815.

He was the eldest of 8 children.įrom 1804 Polidori was a pupil at the recently formed Ampleforth College.

John William Polidori was born on 7th September 1795, in London, to Gaetano Polidori, an Italian political émigré scholar, and Anna Maria Pierce, an English governess.

The Vampyre by John William Polidori