Hans Corneel de Roos is a Dutch photographer, author and specialist for 19th century art and culture. His interest in the background of Bram Stoker’s Dracula developed from creating his own illustrated edition of the novel, incorporating the first Dracula photo story worldwide (The Ultimate Dracula, Moonlake Editions, Munich, 2012).
Intending to include some maps as an additional illustration, De Roos noticed that the locations mentioned in Stoker’s plot had not sufficiently been researched. After discovering the true location of the fictitious Castle Dracula from old military maps and the writer’s own handwritten notes in January 2012, De Roos decided to travel to Transylvania,
together with Lakshmi Sinclair, a Florida journalist. During this trip, he photographed the Kelemen Izvor mountain top picked by Stoker as the site of the Vampire’s
stronghold, and visited Klausenburg, Bistritz, Vereşti, Suceava, Târgovişte, Poenari,
Sibiu, Sighişoara and Mediaş.
Eight more extensive Romanian trips followed, covering all locations related to Stoker’s famous narrative.
In June 2013, Hans discovered the true location of "Lake Hermanstadt", the site of the Scholomance (Devil’s School) as mentioned in
Dracula. His collaboration with Dacre Stoker commenced during the Stoker
Centenary Conference in London, April 2012.
By now, Hans acts as the editor of the Letter from Castle Dracula, the official news bulletin of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, and has published extensively in this online magazine. In November 2013, he was styled a Knight in the Order of Count Dracula, together with Dacre Stoker and Aaron Sagers. In August 2014, Hans was awarded one of only four watches especially designed for the T.S.D., to honour him for his groundbreaking research on the Dracula novel; one of the other bearers of such a watch is Prof. Elizabeth Miller from Toronto.
Born in Bandung, Indonesia in 1956 as a son of Dutch parents, de Roos grew up in Amsterdam. He studied Political and Social Sciences in Amsterdam and at the Freie Universität, Berlin. Besides these studies, he actively engaged in photography, sculpture, theatre and performance.
Besides Amsterdam and Berlin, de Roos lived in London, New York, Vienna and Budapest. Since 1986, he is based in
Munich.
He has twin sons, Dylan and Floyd (22).
For a concise overview of his findings, see the Christmas 2013 issue of "Letter from Castle Dracula", the official newsbulletin of The Transylvanian Society of Dracula.
A more elaborate article about Dracula's Truth Claim and Its Consequences appeared in the October 2014 issue of the Journal of Dracula Studies.
For his articles about Makt Myrkranna, the 1900 Icelandic modification of the Dracula novel, see the publication list of Letter from Castle Dracula.
Hans' English translation of Makt Myrkranna is complete now - see the project website on the translation project.
For Hans's role and initiator and organiser of the Fourth Dracula Congress in October 2016, to be held at Trinity College, Dublin, see the conference Website www.tsdcon25.com.