The Author:
Born August 30, 1797, in London, England, Mary
Shelley came from a rich literary heritage. She was the daughter of William Godwin, a political
theorist, novelist, and publisher who introduced her to eminent
intellectuals and encouraged her youthful efforts as a writer; and of Mary
Wollstonecraft, a writer and early feminist thinker, who died of puerperal fever 10 days after her daughter's birth.
In her childhood, Mary Shelley educated herself amongst her father's intellectual circle, which included critic William Hazlitt, essayist Charles Lamb and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Another prominent intellectual in Godwin's circle was poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary met Percy Shelley in 1812, when she was fifteen. Shelley was married at the time, but the two spent the summer of 1814 traveling together. A baby girl was
born prematurely to the couple in February, 1815, and died twelve days later. In her journal of March 19, 1815, Mary recorded the following dream, a possible inspiration for Frankenstein: "Dream that my little baby came to life again that it had only been cold & that we rubbed it before the fire & it lived." A son, William, was born to the couple in January, 1816.
Shelley came from a rich literary heritage. She was the daughter of William Godwin, a political
theorist, novelist, and publisher who introduced her to eminent
intellectuals and encouraged her youthful efforts as a writer; and of Mary
Wollstonecraft, a writer and early feminist thinker, who died of puerperal fever 10 days after her daughter's birth.
In her childhood, Mary Shelley educated herself amongst her father's intellectual circle, which included critic William Hazlitt, essayist Charles Lamb and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Another prominent intellectual in Godwin's circle was poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary met Percy Shelley in 1812, when she was fifteen. Shelley was married at the time, but the two spent the summer of 1814 traveling together. A baby girl was
born prematurely to the couple in February, 1815, and died twelve days later. In her journal of March 19, 1815, Mary recorded the following dream, a possible inspiration for Frankenstein: "Dream that my little baby came to life again that it had only been cold & that we rubbed it before the fire & it lived." A son, William, was born to the couple in January, 1816.