These 100 sonnets tell the story of an extraordinary young woman who had an immeasurable impact on literature and other media worldwide. The collection focuses on the period from her birth, as Mary Godwin (daughter of literary firebrands William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft), to her twenty-fourth year, when she returned to London after five years abroad: a widow and a mother to a young son, but with a scandalous reputation and no clear means of support. However, she was “The Author of ‘Frankenstein’.” The nom de plume carried the weight of a novel that had already become famous (indeed, infamous), and she understood that it may make it possible for her to support herself and her son via her pen. The sonnets also chronicle Mary Shelley’s interactions with some of the most influential writers and thinkers of her day: her husband Percy Shelley, of course, as well as Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Matthew “Monk” Lewis, John Polidori, Leigh Hunt, and others. And no biography of Mary Shelley would be complete without an accounting of the famous ghost story writing contest among the “Diodati Circle” in the year with no summer.

From the Author’s Preface:

“Mary Shelley’s most significant literary achievement from the period was of course Frankenstein, but I didn’t want this collection to be solely about the conceiving of and the writing of that watershed book. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was so much more than “the author of Frankenstein,” and I hope Aspiring Child provides a more panoramic view of an extraordinary woman who led an extraordinary (and at times extraordinarily difficult) life.”

Reviews of Aspiring Child

“The letter-esque poetry gives an interesting insight into both Morrissey’s view of Shelley and of Shelley herself. . . . Overall, Aspiring Child . . . is a genuine expression of love for an author whose life often swerved into tragedy. In reading these poems, you will empathize and understand the woman behind one of the greatest Gothic novels of all time.” — Jordan Waterwash, Reader Views, 5/5 stars

Aspiring Child: A Biography of Mary W. Shelley has been released. Here is the Amazon link, or if you prefer check your favorite indie store’s site.

Here is the B&N link as well as some popular independent bookstores where the book is available:

Barnes & Noble
Powell’s Books
Left Bank Books
TownHouse Books
Strand Books
Greenlight Bookstore
The Last Bookstore
Square Books
Harvard Book Store
Little Shop of Stories
Wise Blood Booksellers
Garcia Street Books
Head House Books
Bookshop.org

International
Reuffel Bookshop (Koblenz, Germany)
Akademibokhandeln [Academic Bookstore] (Stockholm, Sweden)
Bokus (Stockholm, Sweden)