Mary Wollstonecraft is most famous for writing A Vindication of the Rights of Women and being besties with Voltaire. She was born on April 27, 1759 in London to an abusive, drunk father and a submissive, cold mother. When her mother died in 1780, Mary left home and her abusive father behind.
and convinced her sister Eliza to leave her abusive husband and join her and her best adult friend Fanny Blood in living the independent life. They opened a school for girls, which forwarded their mission of female empowerment and provided a modest income. They went on like this for five years. But then in 1785, Fanny got married, got pregnant, and died. And then the school closed from financial hardship.
Mary was heartbroken. So to get away from it all, she moved to Ireland to work as a governess. But surprise, surprise, she hated domestic work. She decided that she must dedicate her life to authorship. So in 1787, she moved back to London, working as a translator and advisor for Joseph Johnson, a publisher of radical texts.
From her experience as a teacher, Mary wrote, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters Shortly after, she published her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, in 1792. The book pushed against many commonly held notions of femalehood. She basically argued that women who are kept at home weren't given enough to occupy their minds, and so they took it out on their children and their servants, becoming domestic tyrants. And that could all be changed if they were given the same educational opportunities as men. Treated as rational beings and given the chance to develop their own character.
Erin Burr liked it, writing, Your sex has in her an able advocate, a work of genius. John Adams teased his wife Abigail for being a disciple of Wollstonecraft. And Horace Walpole, an English author who no one really cares about, called her a hyena in petticoats.
After writing the book, she moved to Paris to write on the French Revolution. And in 1793, Mary met the handsome and charming American Captain Gilbert Imlay. And she fell for him, got pregnant shortly after with her first child, who she named Fanny, after her dear friend. But things don't work out.
He left her, and Mary reacted not well. She attempted to commit suicide twice. First with Landenum, which was like an opium morphine thing, and then by throwing herself into the Thames.
And in the end, she realized she needed some space and convalesced with little Fanny on a trip to Scandinavia. When she returned, another man came into her life, the reserved and kind William Godwin. Mary got pregnant, and despite both of them not really believing in marriage, they got married anyway. And with Godwin, Mary didn't find it so bad.
In fact, she said, a husband is a convenient part of the furniture of a house, unless he be a clumsy fixture. On August 30, 1797, Mary gave birth to a girl. Who she also named Mary, Mary Godwin.
But you probably know her better by her married name, Mary Shelley, author of the novel Frankenstein. Mary Wollstonecraft would die ten days after giving birth. Her last words were that Godwin was the kindest, best man in the world.