Biographical Overview & Key Facts

Subject:

John William Polidori

Role / Field:

English writer and physician, known for pioneering the modern vampire genre.

Born:

1795-09-07

Died:

1821-08-24

Century / Era:

1795s Historical Era

Database Source:

2Day Chrono-Wiki & Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Origins & Early Life

John William Polidori (7 September 1795 – 24 August 1821) was an English writer and medical doctor. He is known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction. His most successful work was the short story "The Vampyre" (1819), the first published modern vampire story. Although the story was at first erroneously credited to Lord Byron, both Byron and Polidori affirmed that the author was Polidori.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

John William Polidori was born on 7 September 1795 in Westminster, the eldest son of Gaetano Polidori, an Italian political émigré scholar of Greek descent, and his wife Anna Maria Pierce, an English governess. He had three brothers and four sisters. His sister Frances Polidori married the exiled Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti, and thus Polidori, posthumously, became the uncle of Maria Francesca Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, and Christina Georgina Rossetti. William Michael Rossetti published Polidori's journal in 1911. John Polidori was one of the earliest pupils at the recently established Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire from 1804.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

In 1810 he went...

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Frequently Asked Questions about John William Polidori