Compare the image of Walt Whitman to an early cover picture of "Dracula." Note similarity of beard, nose, and eyes.

Daniel Farson, the Grand-Nephew of Bram Stoker said his uncle did not base Dracula on Vlad he Impaler. On page 129 of his 1975 book, "The Man Who Wrote Dracula" said, "The present, incorrect identification of the historical and fictional Draculas is the cause of much confusion..." Page 133 of his book said that Dracula being based on Vlad Tepes is a "lie."

Bram Stoker said that Walt Whitman was as "father, and brother and wife to his soul!" The two had many years of correspondence and Stoker crossed the Atlantic to see him. According to author Barbara Belford in "Bram Stoker (Page 46) "Whitman's influence on Dracula was profound. As Stoker had written, Whitman was "'father...to his soul,' an image reflecting a strange puzzle, particularly since the vampire at times resembles Whitman. Each has long white hair, a heavy moustache, great height and strength, and a leonine bearing. Whitman's poetry celebrates the voluptuousness of death and the deathlike quality of love. Particularly evocative is Whitman's poem 'Trickle Drops.'"

There is something else about Walt Whitman that is significant. He is the father of gay culture. Below are some quotes by Perry Brass about Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde. Whitman is called the "Father" of gay culture. This culture is sometimes called the "Culture of Death."

"Their influence on us is as prevalent and intertwining, through rarely overlapping, as the double helix strands that make up DNA. In fact, they are our DNA. As forbears to a perceivable culture, they are the great mysteries, monuments, and shadows of our lives."

"All of what we call, at the present, 'gay culture,' that is, the culture, postures, public attitudes and perceptions of gay men-and, to a certain degree, lesbians as well-has sprung from two sources, two fonts, certainly, and both of these sources have last names that begin with the letter 'W.'"

"Whitman was our father, as Wilde was the magician who produced the magic act in which he, more than anyone, disappeared." (Walt Whitman & Oscar Wilde: Fountainheads of Gay Culture By Perry Brass http://gaytoday.com/garchive/people/010702pe.htm)

The book Dracula is of course full of homoerotic themes. Themes that came from Walt Whitman.

After meeting Walt Whitman, Stoker said he was a "Master amongst men, and called him "...the Master." Stoker biographer Barbara Belford said in regard to this title, "...Master, one that Renfield uses for Dracula."

Dracula was in some ways symbolic for the effect that "The Master" Walt Whitman had on people and society at the time.

Bram Stoker did not base Dracula on Vlad the Impaler. Dracula had had long white hair. See above picture of Whitman, then compare to Vlad.

A little known fact is that Walt Whitman is a "Ketcham", as in "John Ketcham" in the Amityville Horror legend. He is descended from Sarah Ketcham. Whitman was often to Amityville. The Whitmans were Hicksite Quakers as was John Ketcham. The Hicksite meeting house was in nearby Jericho and according to Gay Wilson Allen, Elias Hicks of Jericho was "a lifelong friend of the Whitman's." (The Solitary Singer, P. 7) Elias Hicks questioned the that Jesus was divine and the authority of Holy Scripture. One of the leaders of the Spiritist movement was a member of the Jericho Hicksite meeting house and his name was Isaac Post. He and John Ketcham believed that people should communicate with the dead. It was in this atmosphere that Walt Whitman was raised in.

"Mr. Stoker told me that Van Helsing is founded on a real character." - Jane Stoddard, 1897

On the left is a picture of Van Helsing. On the right is author Robert Roosevelt. There are striking similarities between the two. They are both Dutch, scientists, have a reputation of kindliness, "bushy brows," etc. Robert Roosevelt also lived in Holland while an ambassador in the 1880s-90s. (bioguide.congress.gov/ scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000428 ) Robert Roosevelt was friends with Oscar Wilde, who was a guest at his home in Sayville. Wilde, Stoker, Whitman and Roosevelt were in the same "crowd."

EDITORIAL: The character "Dracula" represented Walt Whitman. Dracula was the seducer who through stealth seduced the weak, ignorant and evil to his side. Dracula's aim was to take society with his erotic ways. This is what Walt Whitman was doing with his poetry. The person that stood in the way of Dracula was Van Helsing that represented what was good and decent. The people at the turn of the century that most represented what was good and decent were the Long Island Roosevelts, especially President Theodore Roosevelt. Long Island's Walt Whitman represented everything that was evil and indecent because he was a proponent of the ungodly. What Walt Whitman started turned into a worldwide movement. At the time the people who most strongly stood in his way were the Long Island Roosevelts.

Stoker's Grand-Nephew said, "he became friends with Theodore Roosevelt, when he was police commissioner of New York, and continued to see him when he was President." Bram Stoker had a very long and close friendship with Teddy Roosevelt starting long before he was president. Congressman Robert Roosevelt was Teddy's mentor and became his father figure when his father died at a young age. ("The Man Who Wrote Dracula" by Daniel Farson, 1975, St. Martin's Press, Page 93)

Congressman Robert Roosevelt was an author and friend of Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde, like Bram Stoker, considered Walt Whitman the greatest writer. Bram Stoker was even invited to the White House by Theodore Roosevlt. (education.yahoo.com/homework_help/ cliffsnotes/dracula/1.html )Although they were on opposite poles, in many ways the Roosevelts were similar to the Wilde/Whitman group. Both groups were intellectuals and avid writers. Robert Roosevelt was an early naturalist and was the person that influenced Theodore to become a conservationist. Compare to how Dracula is similar/opposite to Van Helsing, then compare how Whitman is similar/opposite to Robert Roosevelt.

An example of how the Roosevelts stood in the way of the movement that Whitman started, Theodore's son Archibald started the Veritas Society which was an organization that fought against America's decline. One of their books was entitled "The Great Deceit" about how the country was going downhill because of leftists. Archibald Roosevelt set up the headquarters for this organization in West Sayville, New York.

Although the Roosevelts did not agree with Oscar Wilde and friends on the way society should go, they were people that they could get along in a social context. The Dutch on Long Island were considered to be very conservative, which was 180 degrees from where the Jericho Hicksites were.

Dracula seduced people much like the Golden Calf seduced the followers of Moses and fire at night seduces insects to come too close and bring about their own destruction. Bram Stoker's Grand-Nephew said that he died of syphilis that he got from loose sex. (The Man Who Wrote Dracula, Page 235) Stoker was enamored by Walt Whitman and his sexually charged poems. He made the mistake of following Whitman and Oscar Wilde, becoming a victim of seduction. The story is somewhat of an allegory of what he saw as a seduction of society by evil writers. Towards the end of his life he publicly condemned writers that included sex in their books. Quite a turnaround from when he was younger and promoted the works of Walt Whitman. This was because he knew he was slowly dying of syphilis.

Thus the book "Dracula" is a warning to all that dare to follow Whitman down the Primrose Path.

President Roosevelt, like all Roosevelts, never to bowed down to fellow Long Islander Walt Whitman.

John Ketcham: The Facts

Bram Stoker who wrote "Dracula": His link to Amityville

NOTES:


http://www.blooferland.com/drc/images/6/6d/Stoddard.rtf
Mr. Bram Stoker. A Chat with the Author of Dracula
Jane Stoddard [This interview, conducted by Jane Stoddard (“Lorna”), was published in British Weekly, 1 July 1897, p. 185. It was reprinted in Dracula, ed. Glennis Byron, pp. 484-488 ]
"Mr. Stoker told me that van Helsing is founded on a real character."


http://www.conovergenealogy.com/ancestor-p/p124.htm#i116629

Sarah Ketchum (F) - Granddaughter of Catchm
b. circa 1640, #116629
Pop-up Pedigree
Relationship=7th great-grandaunt of David Kipp Conover Jr..

 Sarah Ketchum was the daughter of Edward Ketchum and Sarah Salmon. Sarah Ketchum was born circa 1640 at Hashamommock, Southold, Suffolk County, New York. Sarah Ketchum was born in 1639. Sarah Ketchum was born circa 1642 at Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut. She married Joseph Whitman circa 1660 at Huntington, Suffolk County, New York. Ketcham was just a different spelling of the same name in the same family. Also spelt Catchm.

Getting to know the Un-Dead: Bram Stoker, Vampires and Dracula by Elizabeth Miller "The inspiration for his vampire novel was not Vlad the Impaler."

Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, Bram Stoker, Vampire Legends. Romania and the castle of Dracula - Dracul. Rumania and Translyvania.

http://www.literaturepage.com/read/dracula.html

ADD:  Kenenally Kaplan Sunlight

Novels

Bram Stoker Commemorative Plaque, Whitby, England (2002)

He supplemented his income by writing a large number of sensational novels, his most famous being the vampire tale Dracula which he published in 1897. Over time Dracula has become the most important gothic novel ever, even though it was written post the gothic novel era. Before writing Dracula, Stoker researched for 8 years on Folklore and stories of vampires world wide. His book was the first Vampire novel ever. The name of the count was originally going to be count Vampyre, but while doing his research Stoker ran across a real 15th century monster. A live vampire that dwarfs the literary Dracula's cruelties considerably. The real monster, Prince Vlad Draula or Vlad the Impaler was the Ruler of Wallachia, in modern day Romania. And became a legend by his cruel methods of execution. The novel does not make a reference to the real Dracula, but Stoker took him into account and vagely makes a note of him in the book when Count Dracula is talking to Mr. Harker about his family defending the church against the enemies of Christ many years before (first chapters of the novel). The novel is written in a very curious manner. It is a conjunction of Diary entries, telegrams and letters from the characters, which gives the reader the perspective of every character in the book. Parts of it are set around the town of Whitby, where he was living at the time. Dracula is the basis of countless films and plays. The two best and more accurate being Nosferatu, same story as the book but different names and settings, (The Count is Named Orlock). The second being Bram Stoker's Dracula, which even though follows the exact trend as the original story, focus more on Dracula's love and his Romanian background, giving a reference to the actual Dracula in old Romania.

An interesting critical interpretation of the novel is Talia Schaffer's recent "Homoerotic History of Dracula." Schaffer's analysis is a fairly convincing attempt to "out" Bram Stoker, or to prove that he was a closeted homosexual using his fiction as an outlet for the frustrations of concealing his true sexuality. His marriage to Oscar Wilde’s former girlfriend is also a point of contention. Schaffer analyzes a wealth of detail suggesting that Stoker modeled Dracula closely on the events of Oscar Wilde's public scandal over his conviction for sodomy. Stoker's trauma over his friend and countryman's public humiliation provided the grist for the catharsis of writing the novel. Much of the sexual aspect of the novel is from his hero, Long Island poet Walt Whitman. (Talia Schaffer, "'A Wilde Desire Took Me'": The Homoerotic History of Dracula," ELH 61 (1994), 381-425)

Romania and Dracula's Castle. The life and biography of Bram Stoker with summary and analysis of his novel. Abraham Van Helsing. The Poet Walt Whitman wrote the poem "Leaves of Grass." The Wolf.
























































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