This unofficial holiday celebrates the life and times of English author Mary Shelley who wrote one of the world’s most read monster novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus.
“As a child, I scribbled; and my favourite pastime, during the hours given me for recreation, was to ‘write stories.’”— Mary Shelley
Did you know…
- Mary’s mother was famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who, sadly, died soon after Mary was born.
- Frankenstien wasn’t Shelley’s first published work. She published her first poem, Mounseer Nongtongpaw, in 1807, through her father’s company.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley was still married to his first wife when he and the teenaged Mary ran away together.
- The couple didn’t marry until 1816, after Percy’s first wife committed suicide.
- Mary was only 21 years old when Frankenstein was published anonymously.
- In 1822, Mary was widowed at the age of 24, when her husband drowned. He had been out sailing with a friend in the Gulf of Spezia. She spent the rest of her life working to preserve his name and poetry in literary history.
- Mary Shelley died of brain cancer on February 1, 1851, at age 53, in London, England.
Want to know more? Check out The History Chicks Mini-cast on Mary Shelley.
The Literary Counsellor 
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