Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English writer, born in Somers Town, London, on 30 August 1797, and she died on 1 February 1851. Her mother was the philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft and her father the radical thinker William Godwin, so she grew up among books and lively argument. She later lived and travelled in Europe with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, whom she married.

She is remembered above all for Frankenstein, written when she was still a young woman and first published in 1818. It is often counted among the first works of science fiction and remains one of the most discussed novels in English. She also wrote historical novels, an apocalyptic novel, short stories, travel writing and biographical pieces, and she edited her husband's poems after his death. Her work still speaks to readers about ambition, responsibility, loneliness and the cost of knowledge.