Emily Gerard

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(Jane) Emily Gerard was a nineteenth century author best known for the influence her collections of Transylvania folklore had on Bram Stoker and his creation of Dracula. She was born 7 May 1849 in Scotland and died 11 Jan 1905. She is sometimes referred to as "Emily Gerard, Mrs de Laszowska", "Emily Laszowska", "Emily Gerard Laszowska", or "Emily de Laszowska Gerard", after her husband, Chevalier Miecislas de Laszowski, an Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer. Her familiarity with Transylvanian folklore came about as a result of his stationing in the town of Temesvar, which is now located in the Romanian province of Transylvania, which formed a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before 1918.

Known works by her include:

• Reata; or What's in a Name, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1880.
• Beggar My Neighbor, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1882.
• The Waters of Hercules, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1885.

(these first three novels are all under the name "E.D. Gerard" - a collaborative pen name of Emily and her sister Dorothea Gerard)

• "Transylvanian Superstitions." The Nineteenth Century, 1885, p.128-144.
• The Land Beyond the Forest: Facts, Figures, and Fancies from Transylvania, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1888.
• Bis, 1890.
• A Secret Mission, 1891.
• A Sensitive Plant, 1891. (as "E.D. Gerard" in collaboration with Dorothea Gerard.)
• The Voice of a Flower, 1893.
• A Foreigner, 1896.
• An Electric Shock, 1897.
• Tragedy of a Nose, 1898.
• The Extermination of Love: A fragmentary study in erotics, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1901.
• The Heron's Tower, 1904.
• Honour's Glassy Bubble, A Story of Three Generations, 1906. (Posthumously published.)

Aside from the collaborations, she was most commonly identified as "E. Gerard" on the title pages of these works.

Additionally, she reviewed German literature for the Times, having been educated in Tyrol. She spent much of her life in Austria, where she met and befriended Mark Twain (Eccles 1899), to whom The Extermination of Love (1901) is dedicated.

Emily Gerard was the daughter of Archibald Gerard and Euphemia Erskine Robison. Her sister Dorothea (Gerard) Longard de Longgarde (1855-1915), who was arguably the more successful and certainly the more prolific novelist, also married an Austro-Hungarian officer and spent much of her life in Austria. Their novels were often set in Eastern Europe. The Gerard family also included at least two brothers, the Jesuit provincial Father John Gerard (1840-1912) and General Sir Montagu Gilbert Gerard (1843-1905), who made minor contributions to the siblings' collective literary output that eventually totaled nearly 60 books and novels. Both brothers were considered sufficiently noteworthy to be listed alongside Emily Gerard in Black's Who Was Who, 1897-1916 (1953).

More information about her may be found in the article:

• Heiss, Lokke. “Madame Dracula: The Life of Emily Gerard.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 10 (1999): 174-186.

[edit] References

• Black, Adam and Charles Black. Who Was Who, 1897-1916, 4th ed., v. 1, London: Adam and Charles Black, [1920] 1953: p. 270-271.
• Eccles, Charlotte O'Conor (1899-2-21). University of Notre Dame Archives Calendar X-4-c. Retrieved on March 23, 2007.
• Michie, Christopher Young,The Practice of Forestry, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1888: p. 10 of Blackwood Catalog section.
• New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors
• Teuceanu, Radu, “Un Occidental Despre Transilvania: Jane Emily Gerard, The Land beyond the Forest, 1888." Brukenthal. Acta Musei, I. 1 (2006): 243-251.