Mary Wollenstonecraft was born in Somers Town, Great Britain, on August 30, 1797. Her mother, Mary Wollenstonecraft, died of puerperal fever ten days later. Her father was William Goodwin, a political journalist and writer.
Mary had no formal education. She taught herself through her father's intellectual friends. Goodwin eventually took a second wife in 1801. Mary didn't like her. In 1812, Goodwin sent her to live in Dundee. She published her first poem when she was ten.
Mary ran away with the then unknown poet, Percy Shelley, when she was sixteen. Percy had a wife, Harriet, but that didn't stop the couple from starting a life together. Harriet committed suicide by drowning and in 1816, Mary and Percy were married. The idea for her most famous work came to her the same year, and quite by coincidence.
It was a dark and stormy night at the Villa Diodati in Geneva. Mary and Percy were in the company of friends Lord Byron, George Gordon, Mary's stepsister, Claire, and Lord Byron's doctor, John William Polidori. Lord Byron was reading ghost stories to entertain the group. The storm raged. Thunder boomed. Lightning flashed. Suddenly, Lord Byron slammed the book shut, startling his companions. "We will each write a ghost story," he exclaimed.
Mary was excited. The prospect of writing her very own ghost story fascinated her. She decided to take Lord Byron up on his challenge. She would write a story that would strike fear into the hearts of men.
Mary was very interested in Luigi Calvani's electrical experiments that made dead frog's muscles twitch. What an interesting concept. She struggled with the idea and out of it, Frankenstein was born. Never could she have imagined that her story would change the course of English literature forever.
Percy encouraged Mary in her efforts to write the story. She finished the manuscript on May 14, 1817, and submitted it to publishers. The first two rejected it. A third agreed to publish it, believing that Percy was the true author of the story. A woman could never had written such a book. So, on January 1, 1818, Frankenstein was published. Mary was twenty-one.
Though she had several books, short stories and poems published, which brought her many joyous moments, tragedy plagued Mary's life. Her stepsister died, as did her daughter. The couple then had a son, William. The couple moved to Italy in 1818. In 1819, William died of malaria and Mary suffered a nervous breakdown. In 1822, she had a miscarriage. Later the same year, Percy drowned on July 28th, during a heavy squall in the Bay of Spezia. Mary's remaining child, Percy, returned with her to England in 1823.
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