Romanian historian Dr. Radu Florescu, born in Bucharest, on the 23rd of October, 1925, is Emeritus Professor of History at Boston College and the Director of its East European Research Center. In addition to other works of history, Florescu, an indirect descendant of Prince Dracula, has written extensively about his infamous relative, including five books written with his BC colleague the late Raymond T. McNally.

The international best-seller IN SEARCH OF DRACULA (New York Graphic Society, 1972; and reprint with Houghton-Mifflin, 1994); THE COMPLETE DRACULA (Copley Publishing Group, 1992); and DRACULA, PRINCE OF MANY FACES (Little, Brown, 1989), plus THE SEARCH FOR FRANKENSTEIN (Robson Books, 2003), and IN SEARCH OF THE PIED PIPER (Athena Press, 2005).

With the publication of DRACULA'S BLOODLINE, A Florescu Family Saga, Professor Florescu (with added expertise provided by his friend and fellow historian medievalist Matei Cazacu) illustrates how decades of painstakingly diligent research can combine to carry on a family legacy - especially when that legacy is of national and international interest.

The book provides an inside look at Romania’s bloody and turbulent history - a mostly untold narrative that embraces the cruel Ottoman invasions, vying boyars seeking to change the political order at home, and the toppling of the Ceausescu regime. The story of each century is told through the eyes of one Florescu (or more) who had a unique perch from which to view his or her contemporary society.

The early seeds for this book were planted at Oxford, half a century ago, when Professor Florescu, sought to study the history of the country from where he went into selfexile. He completed his undergraduate and master's degree studies at Christ Church College, Oxford.This is where he won the Gladstone Historical Prize.

After his doctoral work at Indiana University in the USA, he used his newly-awarded Fulbright Scholarship to return to his homeland and continue his professional exploration of Romanian and Eastern European history, eventually focusing on Vlad Tepes, known to students of history as Vlad the Impaler and to the wider world as Count Dracula, or simply Dracula.

Most recently, Florescu's innate passion for historical truth led him to the writing of this book, a journey begun on that same long-ago trip to Romania and a meeting with his revered uncle, George Florescu, whose seminal work on Romanian and family genealogy the young historian admired greatly. The rendezvous between great uncle and nephew ran the risk of being awkward. Uncle George's house had been destroyed (and a daughter lost) in the 1944 American bombing raids of Bucharest, and young Radu, fresh from the States, was unsure of the reception that awaited him.

He needn't have worried. It had always been George Florescu's dream that his own son would carry on his work, but when he saw that he had a nephew whose interest in the subject equaled his own, he embraced him warmly and taught him how to climb the family tree and penetrate the layers of historical myth that shrouded Count Dracula.

Together, they undertook a very real, very physical tour of their common historical lineage, visiting many churches, fortresses and even more monasteries, some of which had been built by Vlad Tepes and others by the Florescus. After his uncle died, Radu Florescu continued to research his family history and, decades later, discovered that there was in fact, not just in family lore, a link - through marriage - between the first Florescus (when the variant of the name was Florea, meaning flower) and Vlad Tepes.

As a direct descendant of the ancient Romanian Florea family, all of whom were well aware of Dracula's penchant for impalements, Professor Florescu saw his challenge in a simple way, entice modern day readers toward the truth. His method: de-mythologizing the popular view of Dracula by telling readers the real, historically accurate yet no less fascinating "true" story of Dracula.

Among the other books of Radu Florescu - whose work has been funded by the Ford and the Fulbright Foundations, The American Council of Learned Societies, The American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and others - are several articles and books on Romanian history, such as "The Struggle against Russia in the Romanian Principalities" (reprinted in Romania in 1998) and "Essays on Romanian History".

Professor Florescu is also a contributor to "Historical Mysteries," and wrote a book on the events concerning the 1284 disappearance of the children of Hamelin, popularly known as the Pied Piper of Homeliv.

His academic work has been the subject of documentaries by The History Channel, Discovery, Canadian Broadcasting, National Geographic, ABC and other international television networks. In addition, Radu Florescu has served as historical consultant on a 60 minute film about the real Dracula and vampire mythology, anchored by the well-known British actor Cristopher Lee.

Dr. Florescu has also served as Honorary Consul of Romania in New England. On the occasion of President Nixon's historic visit to Romania in August, 1969, Dr. Florescu served as an advisor to the U. S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest. He also was called upon by the late Senator Ted Kennedy to advise on Romanian affairs.

Matei Cazacu was born in 1946. He received his M.A at the University of Bucharest, Romania and his PhD from the Sorbonne in Paris. He served as a senior researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris. Professor Cazacu is the author of a dozen books including Dracula (Tallandier, Paris, 2004), Gilles de Rais, or Blue Beard, (Tallandier, Paris, 2005), and Frankenstein (with Professor Florescu, Tallandier, 2011). A medievalist, Professor Cazacu lectures throughout Europe and has appeared in documentaries on The History Channel and on Romanian television.