During his lifetime, Stoker was not known as a novelist but as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and the business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, a post he held for 27 years. As a theater critic for the Dublin Evening Mail, he began writing, first reviews, and later short stories like the 1872 鈥淭he Crystal Cup.鈥� Among his first books was a bureaucratic nonfiction legal administration guide, 鈥淭he Duties of Clerks and Petty Sessions in Ireland.鈥�
Stoker began writing novels in 1890 as director of the Lyceum Theatre, beginning with 鈥淭he Snake鈥檚 Pass鈥� in 1890 and 鈥淒racula鈥� in 1897.
