1. Mary Shelley

2. Background Information
Parents famous writers
Mother died ten days after Mary’s birth
Father remarried, but the stepmother disliked Mary and favored her own daughter Claire
Mary had little formal education. She loved to read, write her own stories for amusement, and conversed with famous writers who visited her home

3. Famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley often visited
Famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley often visited. Although married, he fell in love with her and she with him
They ran away together in 1814
Money troubles forced them to return to England where they awaited the birth of their first child in London
The child died shortly after birth

4. Her second child, William, was born a little later
In 1816, Percy, Lord Byron, Byron’s mistress, John William Polidori, and Mary told ghost stories around a fire in a castle in Switzerland. Mary’s idea came to her in a nightmare, and Frankenstein was born. She began writing it at 19, and finished it at age 21.

5. Tragedies in Mary’s Life
Half sister, Fanny, committed suicide
Percy’s Former wife committed suicide
Percy fails to win custody of children he had with former wife
Mary gave birth to daughter Clara, but she died along with William after they moved to Italy in 1818 due to Percy’s failing health

6. Tragedies Continued
After the birth of Percy Jr., the only Shelley child to survive into adulthood, Percy Sr. drowned in a boating accident in 1822 at the young age of 30. They cremated the body except for the heart which Mary sent to Rome.

7. Last Slide
When Mary returned to England, she discovered she was famous. Frankenstein was not only selling well, it had also been made into a popular play.
Mary never wrote anything nearly as famous. She died in London while working on the biographies of her husband and her father.