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The Skeleton Count, or The Vampire Mistress

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Author
  
Elizabeth Caroline Grey

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Similar
  
The Vampire Omnibus, The Grave of Ethelind Fiongual, Vampire City, Thalaba the Destroyer, The Vampire Countess

The Skeleton Count, or The Vampire Mistress (1828) by Elizabeth Caroline Grey is alleged by anthologist Peter Haining to be the first vampire story written and published by a woman. Haining claims that it was first published in the English weekly paper The Casket in 1828 (no relation to other magazines of the same name) and that a collector brought him the only known copy of the story. No other editors have included the story in collections of vampire tales, and the provenance of the tale is suspect. Haining has espoused controversial literary positions before, most recently involving the alleged historicity of the popular penny dreadful "[Sweeney Todd]]."

Grey, a prolific author of so-called "silver fork" novels for women, is an unlikely author of such a story and many stories of the type have been falsely attributed to her. Until hard evidence is forthcoming, her authorship is at best unproven. It is nearly impossible to verify that the piece appeared in The Casket, a penny press paper originally published by George Cowie and William Strange (1827-1829) and revived by Cowie as The New Casket (1831-1833).

References

The Skeleton Count, or The Vampire Mistress Wikipedia