A long-lost ghost story by Dracula author Bram Stoker, which lay hidden in a newspaper archive for more than 130 years, is back in print this Halloween, with every copy sold helping fund research into preventable hearing loss in vulnerable newborn babies through the Charlotte Stoker Fund.
First published in a Christmas supplement of the Dublin Daily Express in December 1890, the story was never referenced in any Stoker bibliography or biography. Fast forward to 2024 when it was unearthed in the National Library of Ireland by Brian Cleary, a lifelong Stoker enthusiast, and published by The Rotunda Foundation that same year.
With the nights drawing in and Halloween approaching, Gibbet Hill offers readers a rare opportunity to discover a previously unknown ghost story by Bram Stoker, written at the very time he was developing Dracula, while also supporting vital research into newborn hearing loss.
A Discovery Born from Hearing Loss
Brian Cleary’s journey began in 2021, when sudden sensorineural hearing loss changed his life. The condition affects about 1,000 people in Ireland each year and needs urgent treatment by an ENT specialist to give the best chance of recovery.
After cochlear implant surgery, and while on leave to retrain his hearing, Brian returned to one of his great interests: Bram Stoker and historical literature. While researching Stoker’s work, Brian found an 1891 newspaper advertisement for the Dublin Daily Express Christmas Supplement of 17 December 1890.
On 12 October 2023, he tracked down the edition in the National Library of Ireland and discovered Gibbet Hill inside.
Brian said: “Finding Gibbet Hill in the National Library was an absolutely extraordinary experience. I gasped when I saw it. I wondered, as I read, if I was the only living person who had read it. Since then, it has travelled further than I ever imagined, and I’m so grateful to everyone who has bought a copy.
Stoker’s ghost story has found new readers, and Charlotte Stoker’s legacy is helping babies born today, just like the advocacy work for deaf children that she did herself. If you’re looking for something to read this Halloween, I hope you’ll choose Gibbet Hill, because every copy makes a real difference. I’m thrilled that we are able to fund research on potentially preventable hearing loss in newborns. What began with the loss of my own hearing might end with the possibility of saving someone else’s.”
Honouring Charlotte Stoker
All proceeds from Gibbet Hill go to the Charlotte Stoker Fund, administered by The Rotunda Foundation, which supports research into the prevention of acquired hearing loss in vulnerable newborn babies.
The Fund honours Bram Stoker’s mother, Charlotte, a pioneering social justice campaigner who championed the education of deaf children more than 160 years ago. Her legacy continues through research that aims to improve hearing outcomes for vulnerable babies today.
The first project supported by the fund is called ÉISTIGÍ- Early Identification of Susceptibility to Gentamicin-Induced hearing loss. This project aims to identify newborn babies at genetic risk of hearing loss from an antibiotic called gentamicin using a novel test (MT RNR1) from a company called Genedrive.
Gibbet Hill brings together the rediscovered Stoker story alongside a foreword by acclaimed Irish author Roddy Doyle, who brings a personal connection through his own experience of deafness, Brian Cleary’s account of discovering the story, commentary from Stoker biographer Paul Murray, original artwork by visual artist Paul McKinley, and a reproduction of Charlotte Stoker’s 1862 paper to the Dublin Statistical Society, advocating for the education of deaf children.
Gibbet Hill by Bram Stoker, published by The Rotunda Foundation, is available now priced at €18.99 from https://rotundafoundation.ie/gibbet-hill/ and buythebook.ie, and as an ebook from Amazon.co.uk.
All proceeds go to the Charlotte Stoker Fund.
