A Rare Original Handwritten Letter Signed by Writer Emily Gerard (Emily de Laszowska). Undated. Signed in one of her pen names Emily de Laszowska. Emily Gerard 1849-1905 was a Scottish 19th-century author best known for the influence her collections of Transylvanian folklore had on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. Subsequent to her marriage, she was variously referred to as Emily Gerard, Mrs de Laszowska, Emily Laszowska, or Emily de Laszowska Gerard. Her book The Land Beyond the Forest (1890) and essay "Transylvania Superstitions" is credited with inspiring Bram Stoker to write Dracula. The latter publication also introduced Stoker to the term "Nosferatu" to describe the undead. In 1897 Gerard wrote to William Blackwood, of Blackwood's Magazine, asking to be introduced to the American author Mark Twain. When Blackwood obliged, Gerard met and befriended Mark Twain, to whom The Extermination of Love (1901) is dedicated. In a letter to Blackwood, Gerard wrote of Mark Twain that he was "an excessively serious, almost solemn person...but when one can get him in the right vein he is quite fascinating.Size is 175mm x 115mm. Condition is good. Light folding creases.