Mary Shelley (born Godwin) is an English writer, playwright, essayist and biographer, best known for her gothic novel “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus” (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary was born in London, England, in the family of a famous feminist, teacher and writer Mary Wollstonecraft and no less famous liberal philosopher, anarchist journalist and atheist William Godwin. Her mother died during childbirth, and her father, who had to take care of Mary and her half-sister Fanny Imlay, soon married again, with her neighbor Mary Jane Clairmont. Under his leadership, Mary received a magnificent education, which was rare for the girls of that time. In 1822, her son, Percy Shelley the elder drowned when his sailing boat crashed during a storm near Viareggio. A year later, Mary returned to England and since then has devoted herself to raising her son and career as a professional writer. The last decade of her life was overshadowed by a serious illness.
