We hope to frighten you with the many Halloween related resources available to you through the NYU Libraries. Proceed if you dare . . . !
Photo Caption: Images of Dracula yellow book cover with red lettering.
Just one of the many treasures you will find at NYU Special Collections. Bram Stoker's Dracula was first published on May 16, 1897 - not Halloween, unfortunately - and has not been out of print since then. It has been adapted for movies, theatrical plays, musicals, graphic novels and video games and the central character - the Count himself - has become synonymous with the myth and legend of the vampire. Bound in yellow cloth with blood-red lettering on both the front and back covers, its color would have signified to contemporary readers that this was perhaps a somewhat 'transgressive' book - yellow was associated with the more disreputable publications of the fin de siecle. The novel is interesting not only for introducing to the world one of the most iconic - if undead - characters in literature, but also because of the way it contrasts the ancient and superstitious with modernity - the story itself is epistolary, told by various characters using a variety of different media to convey their narratives, including not just handwritten letters and journal entries, but also then-modern recording technologies like the typewriter, the phonograph, shorthand and telegrams.
Here are links to some interesting resources beyond NYU . . .