Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, was daughter to feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and political writer William Godwin. Shelley never got to meet her mother, who died shortly after she was born. As a result, Shelley was raised by her stepmother, Mary Jane Clairmont, a woman Shelley never got along with. Shelley did not have the opportunity to be sent away to school, but nonetheless persevered. Distinguished writers, like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, also visited the Godwin household during her childhood, and she had access to her father’s grand library. While she lacked a formal education, she became resourceful and utilized these advantages to educate herself; she was usually found reading, and