# John Polidori

## Biography

John William Polidori was an English writer and physician, born in London in 1795, the eldest son of an Italian émigré scholar. He pursued medical studies at the University of Edinburgh, graduating as a doctor of medicine at the remarkably young age of nineteen. In 1816, Polidori served as Lord Byron's personal physician, accompanying the renowned poet on his travels through Europe. During a memorable summer by Lake Geneva, Switzerland, with Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary Shelley, a challenge to write ghost stories was issued. From this gathering, Polidori penned "The Vampyre" (1819), a groundbreaking work often credited as the first modern vampire story in English. Though initially and erroneously attributed to Byron, Polidori's tale profoundly influenced the burgeoning vampire genre. After parting ways with Byron, Polidori traveled Italy before returning to England. Plagued by depression and gambling debts, he tragically died in 1821 at the age of twenty-five, likely by suicide. He was also the uncle of prominent Pre-Raphaelite artists and writers, including Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti.

## Books

- [The Vampyre; a Tale](https://samolit.com/books/96113)