St. Thomas English Professor Gordon Grice holds an alligator skull in this studio portrait taken October 6, 2016. These photos were taken to accompany a story about Grice's book, The Book of Deadly Animals.

In the News: Gordon Grice on the Origin of Interest in Vampires

St. Thomas English Professor Gordon Grice recently spoke with the Star Tribune about the origins of - and growing interest in - vampires.

From the story:

"Interest is up, up, up, up," said Gordon Grice, who teaches classes on classic horror at the University of St. Thomas. "Vampires are becoming more and more popular."

Grice believes interest in vampires dates back to the ancient Greeks, centuries before the 1819 publication of John Polidori's The Vampyre and 1897's Dracula by Bram Stoker.