Mary Shelley

British writer, the author of "Frankenstein," "Castruccio," "Prince Of Lucca," 1824 and "The Last Man," 1826.

Mary was the daughter of two social reformers ahead of their time. Her feminist mother died at her birth and her father remarried, to Jane Clairmont who had a daughter, Claire. William Godwin was a part of an English liberal movement with his book, "Political Justice." The young poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the young men who agreed with his forward views and who began to frequent his salon in 1813.

Mary and Percy fell in love and eloped on 28 July 1814, fleeing to Switzerland by coach. The were accompanied by Mary's stepsister Claire and Percy's friend, Lord Byron and wandered across Europe before setting in Italy.

Mary had a female infant on 22 February 1815 which died on 6 March. She had another child in 1816 which did not survive. By 1816, she was involved in writing "Frankenstein," and during the pleasant days in their villa, she and Percy and Lord Byron read their work for each other's review. Claire and Lord Byron became lovers and had a child, Allegra, on 12 January 1817. The child later died of typhus at age five, 19 April 1822.

When Percy's wife died, a suicide, Mary and Percy were married, 30 December 1816. They had another child, Clara, on 2 September 1817 who died at one year, 24 September 1818. Only one child, Percy Florence, born 12 November 1819, survived into adulthood. Mary had a severe miscarriage on 16 June 1822.

Shelley's income stopped in 1821 as he owed money for the care of his children whom he'd had with Harriet, and his small trust went to that demand. On 8 July 1822, Percy drowned in a violent lake storm. Mary moved back to London, where she spent her grief in the editing of Percy's letters and poems, editing his works.

She wrote, "For eight years I communicated, with unlimited freedom, with one whose genius far transcending mine awakened and guided my thoughts....