His father was a civil servant and his mother was a charity worker and writer. Stoker was a sickly child - until the age of eight years he suffered from infantile paralysis. He studied Math, History and Philosophy at Trinity College in Dublin and graduated in 1867. Despite of his former childhood weakness he became a soccer star and athlete. After graduation he became a civil servant, a job that he combined with that of drama critic of The Evening Mail. From his interest in theatre sprang his lifelong friendship with the actor Henry Irving. While working for Irving he met an actress named Florence Balcombe (Oscar Wilde's former sweetheart) and were married 1878. They had one son, Noel, born 1879. In England he began writing a series of novels and short stories the first of which was "The Snake's Pass". When writing his masterpiece "Dracula" Stoker was mainly inspired by three influences: The historic model Vlad Tepes, Joseph Sheridan le Fanu's narration "Carmilla" from 1872 and the Hungarian traveler Arminius Vambery, who told him about the vampire myths in the Balkan Peninsula. Although best known for "Dracula", Stoker wrote eighteen books before he died in 1912.