Bibliography, Vampire

Bibliography, Vampire

(pop culture)

In addition to the information about vampires that can be extracted from horror bibliographies such as Edward F. Blieler’s classic The Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983) and Don D’Ammassa’s Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction (2006), a small group of dedicated collectors and researchers have compiled vampire bibliographies. These works contain important information about the scope and development of the genre. Donald Glut‘s The Dracula Book (1975) revolves around Dracula but has bits and pieces of information on other vampires. The first attempt to compile a comprehensive bibliography of English-language vampire fiction, nonfiction and other media appeared in 1983. Martin V. Riccardo‘s Vampires Unearthed became the basis of all future vampire bibliographies.

The literary vampire has received the lion’s share of attention. In the mid-1970s, Margaret L. Carter began to compile a bibliography of English-language vampire fiction. Her work includes a series of publications that combine her interests in bibliographic and literary criticism. Her early works, Shadow of a Shade: A Survey of Vampirism in Literature (1975), Specter or Delusion? The Supernatural in Gothic Fiction (1987), and Dracula: The Vampire and the Critics (1988), culminated in The Vampire in Literature: A Critical Bibliography (1989). Carter has produced annual supplements (which are now being issued in electronic form) to accommodate new vampire fiction and to add references to items missed in the 1989 work. Her work is especially notable for her attention to the vampire in short fiction. Carter has also compiled anthologies of vampire fiction, written vampire short stories, and edited a magazine of vampire fiction.

The new popularity of vampire fiction was demonstrated by an excellent annotated bibliography of vampire literature by Greg Cox. The Transylvanian Library: A Consumer’s Guide to Vampire Fiction (1993) provides a light, but useful romp through the world of the literary vampire—from John Polidori‘s “The Vampyre” to the novels and stories of 1988. Cox was an assistant editor for TOR Books, which has published a number of vampire novels including the works of Brian Lumley and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Of a more serious nature is Brian Frost’s The Monster with a Thousand Faces (1989), which also covers vampire fiction through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is notable for its discussion of many obscure works.

The work on vampire literature has been further expanded by bibliographical work on Bram Stoker, with notable publications by Richard Dalby and William Hughes.

Through the 1990s, Robert Eighteen-Bisang, who owns Transylvania Press in White Rock, British Columbia, has been gathering what has become the largest and most comprehensive collection of vampire literature ever assembled. His collection is the basis of a massive bibliography of vampire fiction and nonfiction titles which he has been working on for the last two decades.

In collaboration with J. Gordon Melton (who owns a similar overlapping collection) Eighteen-Bisang is compiling a set of specialized bibliographical volumes. They published an initial survey of the editions of Dracula in 1998. Continuing bibliographical work into the twenty-first century has been complicated by the explosion of titles, many of which have been produced with little fanfare through publish-on-demand companies and the accompanying development of the electronic publishing industry. During the decade 2000–2009, more new vampire titles were published than in the three previous decades combined.

While most of the bibliographical work was being done in North America, at least one important effort occurred in Europe. Author and anthologist Jacques Finnè produced the Bibliographie de Dracula in 1986. This book-length annotated work is built upon Riccardo’s earlier effort, but is important for its inclusion of non-English titles. Finnè has been supplemented most recently by Clemens Ruthner, “Vampirismus—Forschungsbibliographie” (2003) (posted at http://elib.at/index.php/Vampirismus_-_Forschungsbibliographie_-_Clemens_Ruthner_-_2003).

Comic books, which are given a short chapter by Riccardo, have become an increasingly important home to the vampire. J. Gordon Melton compiled an initial bibliography which was published in 1994 as The Vampire in the Comic Book. A far more exhaustive bibliography was compiled by Massimo Introvigne (who owns the most extensive collection in existence), Melton, and Eighteen-Bisang. Their list of more than eleven thousand twentieth-century vampire comics was posted on line in 2007. It can be accessed at http://www.cesnur.org/2008/vampire_comics.htm.

Vampire movies form a discrete niche in modern culture. While many of the most important movies are adaptations of novels such as Dracula, Interview with the Vampire and Let the Right One In, there are many original titles. Donald Reed published the first vampire movie guide in 1965. It has been followed by specialized movie bibliographies on Dracula or Hammer Films and comprehensive illustrated guides such as Steve Jones’s The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide (1993) and J. Gordon Melton’s Videohound’s Vampires on Video (1997).

Sources:

Altner, Patricia. Vampire Readings: An Annotated Bibliography. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998. 161 pp.Bleiler, Everett F. The Guide to Supernatural Fiction. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1983.Carter, Margaret L. Dracula: The Vampire and the Critics. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1988. 274 pp.———. Shadow of a Shade: A Survey of Vampirism in Literature. New York: Gordon Press, 1975. 176 pp.———. Specter or Delusion? The Supernatural in Gothic Fiction. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1987. 131 pp. A revision of Ph.D. dissertation at the University of California-Irvine.———. The Vampire in Literature: A Critical Bibliography. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1989. 135 pp.Cox, Greg. The Transylvanian Library: A Consumer’s Guide to Vampire Fiction. San Bernadino, CA: Borgo Press, 1993. 264 pp.Dalby, Richard. Bram Stoker: A Bibliography of First Editions, Illustrated. London: Dracula Press, 1983. 81 pp.D’Ammasssa, Don. Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction. New York: Checkmark Books, 2009. 488 pp.Eighteen-Bisang, Robert, and J. Gordon Melton. Dracula: A Century of Editions, Adaptations and Translations. Part One: English Language Editions. Santa Barbara, CA: Transylvanian Society of Dracula, 1998. 41 pp.Finné, Jacques. Bibliographie de Dracula. Lausanne, Switzerland: L’Age d’Homme, 1986.Frost, Brian. Monster with a Thousand Faces. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Press, 1989. 215 pp.Glut, Donald F. The Dracula Book. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1975. 388 ppHarvey, Robert J. Dark Visions: A Price Guide to Collectible Vampire Literature. Fort Worth TX: The Author, 1995. 146 pp.Hughes, William, Bram Stoker: A Bibliography. Brisbane, Aust.: University of Queensland Press, 1997.———, and Richard Dalby. Bram Stoker: A Bibliography. Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, UK: Desert Island Books, 2004. 184 pp.Introvigne, Massimo, J, GordonMelron, and Robert Eighteenteen-Bisang. “English-Language Vampire Comics, 1935–2000—A list and a catalogue of the holdings of CESPOC Library” (Center for Studies on Popular Culture, Torino, Italy). Posted at http://www.cesnur.org/2008/vampire_comics.htm.Melton, J. Gordon. Chronicling the Vampire: A Collector’s Guide to the Vampire Writings of Anne Rice. Santa Barbara, CA: Transylvanian Society of Dracula, 1998. 32 pp.———. The Official Vampirella Collector’s Checklist, 1969–1998. Santa Barbara, CA: Transylvanian Society of Dracula, 1999. 30 pp.———. The Vampire in the Comic Book. New York: Count Dracula Fan Club, 1993. 32 pp. rev. ed. with Lee Scott. New York: Dracula Press, 1994. 76 pp.Riccardo, Martin V. Vampires Unearthed: The Complete Multi-Media Vampire and Dracula Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing, 1983. 135 pp.