Polidori, John William

John William Polidori (1795-1821) was an English writer and physician. He is credited as one of the creators of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction and is also known for his associations with the Romantic movement. "The Vampyre: A Tale" was the first vampire novel published in English(the first notable appearance of a vampire in creative literature being the short German poem "Der Vampir," written in 1748, by Heinrich August Ossenfelder). In the summer of 1816, Lord Byron and his guests, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (Shelley) and her half sister Claire Clermont, and Dr. John William Poli...