John William Polidori
John William Polidori was an English writer and physician, born in Westminster, London, in 1795. The son of an Italian émigré and a governess, Polidori struggled with feelings of isolation during his education, particularly due to his Italian heritage. He attended Ampleforth College and later studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where he graduated at the young age of nineteen. Polidori is best known for his novella *The Vampyre*, published in 1819, which is credited as the first prose narrative to feature a vampire and significantly influenced later Gothic literature, including Bram Stoker's *Dracula*.
His literary career began while he worked as Lord Byron's personal physician and secretary during a European tour, where a memorable ghost-story competition led to the creation of *The Vampyre* and Mary Shelley's *Frankenstein*. Despite the initial success of his work, Polidori faced personal challenges, including financial struggles and a sense of literary inadequacy. He died in 1821 under circumstances that suggest possible suicide, leaving behind a legacy intertwined with the Romantic literary movement and the development of vampire fiction.
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John William Polidori
- Born: September 7, 1795
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: August 27, 1821
Biography
John William Polidori was born in Westminster, London, the oldest son of Gaetano Polidori, an Italian émigré, and Anna Maria Pierce, a governess. Polidori’s father had been the traveling secretary to the poet and dramatist Alfieri, and he published Italian translations of Milton, wrote short stories and educational works, and also taught Italian literature. Polidori’s sister, Frances, was the mother of Dante, Christina, and William Rosetti.
Polidori entered Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire in 1805, and in 1811 he entered Edinburgh University to study medicine. A socially inept young man, he was unhappy in college and felt particularly ostracized by comments about his Italian heritage. He wrote his thesis on somnambulism and nightmares and graduated in 1815 at the extremely early age of nineteen. He began practicing medicine in Norwich, and in 1816 Lord Byron hired Polidori as his private physician and secretary to accompany him on a European tour. Byron’s publisher, John Murray, also paid Polidori to write a diary of their travels.
In June of 1816, Byron and Polidori met with Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Claire Clairmont in Geneva, Switzerland, where Byron rented the Villa Diodoti and often entertained the group. One evening, when a storm forced the group to be housebound, Byron suggested a ghost-story writing competition. The stories produced by this competition eventually led to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Polidori’s The Vampyre, which was first published in the April 1819 issue of New Monthly Magazine. The story was, however, originally attributed to Byron, and, although Byron himself tried to clear up the misunderstanding, The Vampyre was often attributed to him. Ironically, it helped to establish Byron’s success in Europe.
Polidori and Byron parted ways, and Polidori returned to England, where in 1818 he wrote An Essay upon the Source of Positive Pleasure, which proposed the imagination’s role as the body’s only source of pleasure. He also wrote a novel, Ernestus Berchtold (1819), a gothic story of incest between brother and sister. Depressed over his lack of literary success and rising gambling debts, Polidori was found dead in his lodgings in London on August 27, 1821. The coroner’s verdict was death by natural causes, although it is strongly suspected that he poisoned himself.
Polidori’s sole claim to literary fame is The Vampyre, the first prose narrative to deal with the figure of the vampire, which had previously only appeared in folktales. Polidori’s vampire is modeled upon Lord Byron, an attractive figure who corrupted youth. Seven English editions of The Vampyre were published in 1819, though Polidori earned only thirty pounds for them. The book was translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish, was very popular in America, and was adapted into a successful opera. Without Polidori’s original The Vampyre, Bram Stoker’s later nineteenth century work would not have been possible.