Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) spent his childhood in Edinburgh, Scotland, but traveled widely in the United States and throughout the South Seas. He was author of many novels, including The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped, The Black Arrow, and Treasure Island.

Bram Stoker (1847–1912) was an Irish author best known for his Gothic horror novel Dracula. He also worked as a theater critic and business manager of Lyceum Theatre in the West End.

Mary Shelley (1797–1851) was born to well-known parents: author and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and philosopher William Godwin. When Mary was sixteen, she met the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a devotee of her father’s teachings. In 1816, the two of them travelled to Geneva to stay with Lord Byron. One evening, while they shared ghost stories, Lord Byron proposed that they each write a ghost story of their own. Frankenstein was Mary’s contribution. Other works of hers include Mathilda, The Last Man, and The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck.

Washington Irving (1783–1859) was an author best known for his short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” and traveled widely before settling down in the Hudson Valley in New York.

Gaston Leroux (1868–1927) was a French novelist whose best-known work, Le Fantôme de l’opéra or The Phantom of the Opera, has inspired many film and stage adaptations.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American writer, poet, and critic. Best known for his macabre prose work, including the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” his writing has influenced literature in the United States and around the world.