Mary Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born in London on August 30, 1797, to William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, the feminist author of “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.” Her father was an author and politician, and throughout her childhood, he was a member of an intellectual circle that included Charles and Mary Lamb, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Holcroft, and William Hazlitt. In 1812, Mary met the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley when he visited her father, and in 1814, they eloped to France. They were married in 1816 after the death of Percy’s first wife. Together they wrote “History of a Six Weeks’ Tour Through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, with Letters Descriptive of a Sail 'Round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni” (1817), an account of their travels. In June of 1816, the Shelleys moved to the banks of Lake Geneva, near the home of Lord Byron and Dr. John William Polidori. One evening, they all agreed to write horror stories, and Mary began writing “Frankenstein.” Percy encouraged her to turn the story into a novel, and in 1818, “Frankenstein” was published. Later that year, the Shelleys moved to Italy, where they remained until Percy’s death in 1822. During that period, two of their children died, and Mary suffered from a dangerous miscarriage. She also wrote the novels “Valperga” and “Mathilde,” which was not published until 1959. After Percy’s death, Mary and her only surviving child, Percy Florence, returned to England, where she focused on promoting Percy’s work and making his unpublished writings available. She also continued to write, publishing short stories and several novels, including “The Last Man,” “The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck,” “Lodore,” and “Falkner.” Mary died in London on February 1, 1851.