John Polidori

John William Polidori (1795-1821) was an English writer who was with Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley when Mary first told her story, Frankenstein, which frightened her friends. Fern recounts the event in the episode Fernkenstein's Monster.

Polidori himself made up a vampire story for the horror story contest. It was published in 1819 as The Vampyre and is regarded as the first modern vampire story. It had an immense influence on Bram Stoker's Dracula and many other vampire stories. The vampire Lord Clarence de Ruthven was modelled on Lord Byron.