Born in London in 1797, Mary Shelley was the daughter of feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft and political philosopher William Godwin. As a child she immersed herself in her father’s extensive library and often read and wrote stories beside her mother’s grave. At 16 she began a romantic relationship with Percy Bysshe Shelley, a married poet and political radical. Their infamous summer of 1816, with Lord Byron near Geneva, Switzerland, led to the conception of her groundbreaking novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818).
Shelley’s Frankenstein became a cornerstone of Gothic literature and is considered an early example of science fiction. Throughout her career, she wrote several other novels, including The Last Man (1826) and Lodore (1835). After her husband’s death in 1822, Shelley devoted herself to raising her son and establishing her career as a professional author.