Famous Impostors

He's best remembered as the legendary manager of London's Lyceum Theatre and author of the incalculably influential 1897 novel Dracula, but Bram Stoker was a prolific writer of numerous other works, including books of nonfiction. This curious 1910 work, one of his last, is an amusing survey of the charlatans, rogues, and other practitioners of make-believe who bedevil and delight us. With a cheerfully withering eye for their cons, Stoker introduces us to many famous fakers • royal pretenders (such as Perkin Warbeck, who claimed King Henry VII's throne) • magicians (Paracelsus, Cagliostro, etc.) • witches and clairvoyants • women masquerading as men • hoaxers • and others. Irish author ABRAHAM STOKER (1847-1912) worked for more than a quarter of a century as manager of the West End's Lyceum Theatre, which drew him into London's literary and artists circles; he was a friend of such luminaries as writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Stoker is also the author of The Lair of the White Worm (1911), among other books.