Born August 30, 1797, Mary Shelley was the daughter of feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft and cultural critic William Godwin. The second of two daughters to Wollstonecraft (the elder being Fanny Imlay from an engagement prior to William Godwin), Mary did not get to know her mother as Wollstonecraft died weeks later due to complications from her youngest daughter’s birth.
In 1801, Godwin remarried to Mary Jane Clairmont, who had two children of her own: Clara and Charles. Godwin home-schooled Mary. He tailored his teachings to encompass a wide variety of fields, granting Mary access to his own personal library in the process. Godwin encouraged Mary’s own writing. In 1808, he...
