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MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY

Biographical Chronology[1]

* 1797: William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft marry a few months before the birth of Mary. Mother dies ten days after Mary's birth. Mary has a half-sister, Fanny Imlay.

Godwin was a well-known supporter of the underprivileded. Wrote Political Justice, a criticism of society and an ethics manual. Wollstonecraft was a well-known feminist. They married basically to protect the legal rights of Mary, although they were critics of marriage.

* 1801: William Godwin marries Mrs. Mary Jane Clairmont. She has other children also - a son Charles and a daughter Jane (later known as Clair).

* 1812: Percy Bysshe Shelley (married to Harriet Westbrook) starts corresponding with Godwin because Shelley respects his ideas. He becomes a regular visitor to their home. Mary at this time is in a "foster home" with a family by the name of Baxter. Mary, however, does meet both Percy and Harriet on a trip home.

* 1814: Mary returns home and begins a relationship with Percy Shelley. They go away together to France and Switzerland in July, taking Clairmont's daughter, Claire (Jane) with them.

* 1815: Mary gives birth (prematurely) to a daughter who dies a few days later. Mary and Percy settle in Windsor.

* 1816: Mary gives birth to a son, William. The family, along with Claire, leave England for Geneva. They meet Lord Byron (with whom Claire is having a relationship) and live with him. Mary begins writing Frankenstein in June.

Fanny Imlay commits suicide. Two months later Harriet (Shelley's wife) is found drowned (also thought to be suicide). Mary and Percy marry.

* 1817: Frankenstein is completed. Mary gives birth to a daughter, Clara. History of a Six Weeks' Tour is published.

* 1818: Frankenstein is published. Family leaves for Italy. Baby Clara dies.

* 1819: William dies - so far all of Mary's children have died. Mary gives birth to Percy Florence. He will be the only Shelley child to survive.

* 1822: Mary almost dies from a miscarriage, but is saved by Percy's quick-thinking efforts. Sailing back from Leghorn, Percy and Edward Williams are lost at sea in a storm.

* 1824: Mary's publication of Percy Shelley's Posthumous Poems is suppressed by her father-in-law, who never accepted their relationship nor their lifestyle.

* 1824-39: Mary writes numerous articles and stories for magazines and journals.

* 1826: Percy Florence becomes heir to the Shelley title and estate when Charles Bysshe, (Shelley's son by Harriet) dies. Mary publishes The Last Man, one of the first novels to deal with the idea that humans will someday be destroyed.

* 1835: Mary contributes biographies for Cabinet Cyclopaedia.

* 1837: Falkner, her last novel, is published. She writes more biograghies for Cabinet Cyclopaedia.

* 1839: Mary prepares and publishes an edition of Percy Shelley's Poetical Works. Although Sir Timothy still forbids her to write a biography of the poet, she is able to include biographical material in her notes to the poems.

* 1844: Rambles in Germany and Italy, a book based on Mary's continental tours with Percy Florence and his friends (1840-43) is published. Percy Florence came into the title of inheritance after the death of his grandfather, Sir Timothy.

* 1851: Mary Shelley dies and is buried between her parents in St. Peter's Churchyard in Bournemouth.