Stoker's association with Walt Whitman began when as a student at  Trinity College, he spoke out in support of Professor Edward Dowden's  defense of the American poet's work. In 1876 he wrote Whitman two enthusiastic letters, to which he received the response reprinted below. The two finally met in March 1884, while Stoker was on tour in America with the Lyceum Theatre. Whitman died in 1892. It is widely accepted that Stoker's admiration for the United States, including Whitman, inspired him to create the character of Quincey Morris.

A copy of the original handwritten letter that Stoker received from Whitman in 1876 was inserted in /Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving/ (1906), yet another indication of the high regard in which the author of /Dracula /held the great American poet.

Camden, N. Jersey
U.S. America

March 6/76

Bram Stoker,

My dear young man,

Your letters have been most welcome to me—welcome to me as Person &
then as Author—I don't know which most—you did well to write to me
so unconventionally, so fresh, so manly, & so affectionately too. I too
hope (though it is not probable) that we shall one day personally meet
each other. Meantime I send you my friendship & thanks.
Edward Dowden's letter containing among others your subscription for a
copy of my new edition has just been rec'd. I shall send the books very
soon by express in a package to his address. I have just written to E.D.
My physique is entirely shatter'd—doubtless permanently—from
paralysis & other ailments. But I am up & dress'd, & get out every day a
little—live here quite lonesome, but hearty & good spirits.

Write to me again.

Walt Whitman