A succession of personal tragedies hindered his efforts, however. His wife of thirty-five years was sadly killed in the Battersea Park railway crash of 1937. Then, in 1938, the asylum in Purfleet he had co-founded and administered for close to fifty years closed its doors, forcing him into a retirement he had long resisted.
You have to admire the dedication of Dr. Seward, who from his writings and personal correspondences seemed to really feel he owed Van Helsing a debt. Seward was one of the parties who willingly provided personal records (in his case, phonographic recordings, mostly pertaining to his patient, R.M. Renfield) to Bram Stoker, which Stoker then used in the publication of his ‘novel’ Dracula in 1897.
Excerpts from Van Helsing’s personal journal were included in that book (translated from Dutch, as are the ones that appear in these papers, by Seward), but among the descendants of Lord Godalming, there is still some question as to whether these pages were obtained with the professor’s consent, or at least with his full understanding that they would be made public. Holmwood himself believed the account compiled by Stoker under the direction of the Harkers was solely intended for the edification of their young son Quincey.
The Holmwood family, in point of fact, assert that the fragments from Van Helsing’s journal of the 1890 period are believed by them to have been copied by Seward himself during the professor’s stay at Purfleet Asylum, or else by one of Seward’s staff. The reason for this, the Holmwoods claim, was monetary. It is known that the asylum was in dire straits financially at the outset, and that it experienced a substantial economic turnaround in 1898, a year after the publication of Dracula.
As Seward wrote, Van Helsing had been ostracized by the academic world for appearing in Dracula. Even some colleagues who had previously shared in his adventures turned their backs on him publicly when their own reputations were endangered.
Everyone suffered a small degree of embarrassment at the hands of Stoker, of course. Lord Godalming was branded an eccentric, which was sort of inconsequential to an English lord. The Harkers were a private people, not well known in the first place. Being that publication was mainly their idea, and they shared in Stoker’s profits and raised their son comfortably on residuals (under a new surname, legally petitioned for by Jonathan), it was little to them. Dr. Seward, by his own admission, deflected any criticism from his peers by pointing out the fact that Dracula was labeled as fiction, and claimed in private circles at the time to have nominally participated in it as a favor to Stoker, or as a lark. He wasn’t known much outside the psychiatric community, and not well regarded outside of London, at that.
But Abraham Van Helsing, when confronted by his detractors, out of personal honor or perhaps naivety, denied nothing (note these events will be better understood and brought to light in a subsequent collection).
And that wasn’t the end of his exploits, nor even, as I found, the beginning.
Van Helsing, by his own assertion (records are scant), was born in 1834 in Natal, South Africa to Voortrekker Arjen Van Helsing and his German wife, Konstanze Gottschalk. He died in Holysloot, North Holland in 1934 (This can be confirmed. I’ve seen his death certificate.) In between that time he was a seminarian, a husband and father, a Boer farmer, a scientist, a field scout and interpreter, a medical doctor, a philosopher, an amateur archaeologist, a mystic, a respected lecturer, instructor, and a world traveler.
It took me nearly thirteen years of fact checking and emailing, meeting and compiling (to say nothing of legal wrangling over the authenticity and ownership of the papers themselves) to release the first installment of the Van Helsing papers in accordance with the late professor’s initial wishes.
In the end I was reluctant to do so. My own career after all, has been in novels, and in doing this I risk consigning the professor’s true history to the realm of speculative fiction, just as Bram Stoker did (albeit unwittingly – Stoker believed the papers he transcribed and polished to be works of amateur fiction).
Yet I can only humbly submit the first collection of these documents and ask that the reader overlook the presenter and see the truth within. We are obliged to put out the stories that come to us.
Dr. John Seward’s own efforts at vindicating his friend were cut short on September 7, 1940, when the German Luftwaffe initiated operation Loge and he was killed in the first strike of the London Blitz.
It is my hope that I, in accidentally uncovering these documents and laboring to continue Seward’s work, have been passed his torch, and that in publishing them, I have at last done right by both men.
Edward M. Erdelac,
Valley Village, CA
May, 2012
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Mr. Dederick Pietersen, Ransdorp, North Holland
Jefferson Carter, Braun Research Library, Autry National Center, Los Angeles, California
Dr. Byron McFynn Jr., History Department, Marshall College, Connecticut
Renee Ravell, Bastrop Historical Society, Bastrop, Texas
Dr. Jan De Vries, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Paul Ladbroke, Thurrock Local History Society
Oliver Ruddles, Bastrop County Records Office, Bastrop, Texas
Professor Stanislaus Laff, History Department, Empire State University, New York City, New York
Heleen Six, Curator, Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Professor William Wallace Spates III, Special Collections, Miskatonic University, Arkham, Massachussetts
The Herkein family
Edward Arthur Holmwood, 8th Viscount Godalming
Lady Godalming
Edward M. Erdelac is the author of the acclaimed Merkabah Rider series and Buff Tea. He is an award winning screenwriter and independent filmmaker. His stories have appeared in several magazines and anthologies on both sides of the pond. Among other contributions to the franchise, he wrote the definitive story about boxing in the Star Wars universe.
Born a Hoosier, he was educated in Chicago and now lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and a bona fide slew of children and cats.
News of his work, misadventures, and extensive home video collection can be found at http://emerdelac.wordpress.com. He has also been known to putter around longer than necessary on Facebook.
Tied for 1st Place in the 2012 JS Horror Writing Contest.
Billy Moon would have given his life for rock 'n' roll stardom, but the Devil doesn’t come that cheap.
Goth rock idol Billy Moon has it all: money, fame, and a different girl in every city. But he also has a secret, one that goes all the way back to the night he almost took his own life. The night Trevor Rail, a shadowy record producer with a flair for the dark and esoteric, agreed to make him a star... for a price.
Now Billy has come to Echo Lake Studios to create the record that will make him a legend. A dark masterpiece like only Trevor Rail can fashion. But the woods of Echo Lake have a dark past, a past that might explain the mysterious happenings in the haunted church that serves as Rail’s main studio. As the pressure mounts on Billy to fulfill Rail's vision, it becomes clear that not everyone will survive the project.
It's time the Devil of Echo Lake had his due, and someone will have to pay.
“VERDICT This unique and unnerving read is a sure bet for horror and sf fans.”
—Rebecca M. Marrall, Western Washington Univ. Libs., Bellingha - Library Journal
In the deepest reaches of space, on a ship that no longer exists, six travelers stare into the abyss...
Man has finally mastered the art of space travel and in a few hours passengers can travel light years across the galaxy. But, there's a catch—the traveler must be asleep for the journey, and with sleep come the dreams. Only the sleeper can know what his dream entails, for each is tailored to his own mind, built from his fears, his secrets, his past... and sometimes his future.
That the dreams occasionally drive men mad is but the price of technological advance. But when a transport on a routine mission comes upon an abandon
ed ship, missing for more than a decade, six travelers—each with something to hide—discover that perhaps the dreams are more than just figments of their imagination. Indeed, they may be a window to a reality beyond their own where shadow has substance and the darkness is a thing unto itself, truly worthy of fear.
“The work is as tidy as the town and as pat as a familiar horror film."
—Publishers Weekly
Diagnosed with a brain tumor, Geoffrey returns to his hometown for a reunion of the Jokers Club (his childhood gang) with the hopes of unearthing the imagination he held in his youth.
Unfortunately Geoffrey’s tumor quickly worsens, bringing on blackouts and hallucinations where he encounters the spectral figure of a court jester who had been his muse as a child. The jester inspires Geoffrey’s work on his manuscript, fueling his writing at a ferocious pace. The dead and the living co-exist in the pages of Geoffrey’s story, in a town where time seems to be frozen in a past that still haunts the present.
Will the pounding growth in Geoffrey’s head be held at bay long enough for him to discover who is targeting his friends, or will the pages in his unfinished novel rewrite history?
“This is a novel full of visceral, intense moments. It will keep you holding on until the brilliant end.”
—Richard Godwin, author of Mr. Glamour and Apostle Rising
An evil force is at work at the Hospital where Nathan is recovering from injuries he received at the hands of his Mom’s abusive ex-boyfriend. Demonic looking men with pale faces and glowing eyes lurk in the shadows. Someone is harvesting skin and organs from living donors against their will.
In his dreams, Nathan can see these demons in their true form – evil creatures who feed on the fear and hatred they create in their victims. Nathan’s only ally is the Doctor who cares for him. Bound together by their common legacy, they alone seem to share the ability to see the demons for what they truly are.
Together they must find a way to stop these creatures before they, and their loved ones, become the next victims.
In a tiny community on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Brother Placidus finds little Amanda LeFleur sacrificed below a crucifix, in the attic of The Brothers of the Holy Cross. It is not the first body he’s found there.
Assigned to the investigation is detective Peter Toche whose last case was that of a murdered child, a child that has been haunting his dreams, forcing him to face his worst fears and the evil that has targeted his town.
As additional victims are discovered, Tristan St. Germain, a mysterious man who was rescued by a parish priest from the waters near his home, may hold the key to the safety of all mankind.
Little Amanda was only the beginning…
“Faherty’s latest novel provides readers with as much fun in a graveyard as the law will allow.”
—Hank Schwaeble, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of DAMNABLE and DIABOLICAL.
Rocky Point is a small town with a violent history - mass graves, illegal medical experiments and brutal murders dating back centuries. Of course, when Cory, Marisol, John and Todd form the Cemetery Club, they know none of this. They’ve found the coolest place to party after school - an old crypt. But then things start to go bad. People get killed and the Cemetery Club knows the cause: malevolent creatures that turn people into zombies. When no one believes them, they descend into the infested tunnels below the town and somehow manage to stop the cannibalistic deaths.
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