Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, later Mary Shelley, was born in Somers Town, London, on 30 August 1797. Her parents were two prominent radical writers: Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin.

Wollstonecraft had published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. Godwin’s An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice followed in 1793. Both had criticised conventional marriage, but they married on 29 March 1797, several months before their daughter was born.

Mary was Wollstonecraft’s second child. Her older half-sister, Fanny Imlay, had been born during Wollstonecraft’s earlier relationship with the American Gilbert Imlay.

The birth was followed by serious complications. Wollstonecraft became ill and died on 10 September, eleven days after Mary was born. Godwin was left to bring up Mary and Fanny.

The following year he published Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, an account of Wollstonecraft’s life. Mary grew up reading her mother’s books and knowing a woman she could not remember through her published work and the accounts of those who had known her.

Mary Godwin later became Mary Shelley after marrying the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. In 1818 she published Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. It became the work for which she was best known. However, she also wrote other novels, short stories, travel writing, biography, journalism and editorial work.

Her birth on 30 August 1797 placed her in an unusual literary household. Eleven days later, that household had changed.