Shelley, Mary

The author Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley was born in England as the daughter of the pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and the radical philosopher and author William Godwin. As a 19 year old she ran away with the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and for several years they lived in Italy in close company with Lord Byron. Mary Shelley's life was surrounded by several dramatic deaths. Her mother died in the sequel of her birth, three of her four children died at tender age, and her husband died in a drowning-accident in 1822. After the death of her husband Mary Shelley returned with her son to England.