A Brooklyn Teacher Who Keeps Track of Vampires

I recently talked with Held, 50, who, with his training as a speech teacher, speaks in a painstakingly refined voice that almost sounds as if there were something Eastern European about it. I asked him how an apparently mild-mannered teacher ever got involved with vampires.

"It started when I began teaching at Samuel J. Tilden High School out in Flatbush, Brooklyn, in 1972," he said. "I taught, and still teach, English and speech there. A colleague of mine, a teacher who has since passed, caught my eye with his drawings of an ugly female vampire he named Ugla. He had a real flair for art, and the drawings were quite good. He piqued my interest in vampires and suggested I read Bram Stoker's Dracula."

After reading Stoker's classic, Held was hooked. By 1979, with a group of pen pals who harbored a similar attraction to vampire lore, he started the Vampire Information Exchange, which publishes a quarterly newsletter featuring testimonials from vampires, suggestions for reading about vampire-related topics and other pertinent material.

I asked Held if he was a vampire.

"No, no, I am not," he responded.

But does he believe that vampires exist?

"I don't believe in the supernatural kind of vampires... But I do believe that there are some people who believe they are, in fact, vampires. Their reasons vary, but usually they don't like sunlight and they feel they have a need for blood because it gives them strength or a better sexual drive."

Held laughed when I asked if he could see himself as a vampire.

"You know, I think that the image of the vampire is quite compelling, and who wouldn't want to have supernatural strength or have the power to mesmerize people? The eternal-life thing I might not want, but the image of a vampire is appealing."

So have any of the undead come to him for a visit?

"The scariest thing I had happen was a 13-year-old kid contacted me, and wanted information on how to mutilate himself. He was looking for someone to teach him the ways. I got back to him and suggested as gently as I could that he should seek help. He wrote back a month later thanking me and he did get help.

"Then I had one guy contact me, thanking me for giving out bad information on vampires, because he had been undetected for 500 years, and with what I was putting out it would be another 500 years before he would be discovered."

How does his vampire passion play at school?

"Well," said Held, "I keep a low profile at school, but most of the teachers know about it. Some find it interesting and some think I'm nuts. I have one teacher who calls me Vlad. The students never knew about it until last year, when one kid found out about it and spread the word. Needless to say, that day I didn't do much teaching. They wanted a seminar on vampires. One kid had a clove of garlic in tinfoil that he handed to me. Another wanted to know if I bit people and drank blood. They were quite interested in it, but it did become a distraction. Most of those kids have since graduated, so I don't think many students know about it now, and it's better that way."

Held's married, with a 21-year-old daughter. Were his wife and daughter vampire buffs, or did they consider him an odd duck?

"They basically just humor me?just put up with it. My wife at times had some interest in it, but mainly they just think it's just one of my oddities, and leave me alone with it."