Trivia

In summer 1816, Lord Byron challenged four friends staying at the Villa Diodati to write a ghost story. A few nights later, Mary had a vision, based on a dream 15 months earlier, of her daughter, who had lived 11 days, being brought to life by the warmth of a fire. With the encouragement of her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, she produced a novel 11 months later. "Frankenstein" was eventually published in early 1818.

"Frankenstein" is dedicated to her father, William Godwin, who is considered the first modern anarchist philosopher. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, who is considered the first feminist, died while giving birth to Mary.

She completed "Frankenstein" when she was 19 years old.

Her remains, and those of her father, are interred at St Peter's Church in Bournemouth town centre, in southern England.

Aside from "Frankenstein", she also wrote another science fiction tale, "The Last Man" (1826), and several historical novels. Her novella, "Mathilda," was written in 1819, but not published until 1959.

She had four children: an unnamed daughter (February 22, 1815 - March 6, 1815), William Shelley (January 14, 1816 - June 7, 1818), Clara Everina Shelley (September 2, 1817 - September 24, 1817), and Percy Florence Shelley (November 12, 1818 - December 5, 1889), who succeeded his grandfather as the 3rd Baronet Shelley.

Played by Elsa Lanchester in Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Natasha Richardson in Gothic (1986), Alice Krige in Haunted Summer (1988), Lizzy McInnerny in Rowing with the Wind (1988) and Elle Fanning in Mary Shelley (2017), among others.

Contracted smallpox in 1828, scarring her face for the rest of her life.

Because she was one of the credited cowriters of the screenplay for the comedy Young Frankenstein ("based on the characters in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley"), Mary Shelley was a cowinner (alongside Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks) of the 1975 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation--despite having been dead since 1851.

"Frankenstein" at the Remy Bumppo Theatre Company at Theatre Wit in Chicago, Illinois was awarded the 2019 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Midsize Play Production.