Born in London,Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley(1797-51) was the
daughter of William Godwin, a noted social theorist, and Mary
Wollstonecraft, one of the leading literary women of the day. Her
mother died soon after her birth, and Mary was raised first under
the care of servants, then by a stepmother, and finally in the
rarefied intellectual atmosphere of her father's circle. In May
1814, she met Percy Bysshe Shelley and, in July of the year, moved
with him to the Continent. Two years later, after the death of
Shelley's wife, the poet and Mary were able to wed. It was in
Switzerland in 1816, as a result of a story-writing competition
among the Shelleys and Lord Byron, that Mary beganFrankenstein, her
first and most famous novel. Published in 1818, it was followed by
such works asValperga(1823),The Last Man(1826), andFalkner(1837).
In 1822, after the death of her husband, she devoted herself to the
upbringing of her son and the securing of his right to the Shelley
family title.
Bram Stoker(1847-1912) was born in Dublin. After attending Dublin
University, he spent ten years as an Irish civil servant, trying to
keep up his writing in his free time. By 1871, he had become the
drama critic for the DublinMailand had gained experience as a
newspaper editor, reporter, and short story writer. In 1878 he
became the personal assistant to Sir Henry Irving, the foremost
Shakespearean actor of his day, accompanying him on tours and
managing Irving's theater. After Irving's death in 1905, Stoker
worked on the literary staff of the LondonTelegraph.Dracula, his
most famous work, was published in 1897.
Throughout his life,Robert Louis Stevenson(1850-1894) was plagued
by ill health, which interrupted his formal education at Edinburgh
University. Pursuing the life of a bohemian during his twenties and
thirties, he traveled around Europe and formed the basis of his
first two books,An Inland Journey(1878) andTravels with a
Donkey(1879). Stevenson gained his first popular success
withTreasure Island(1883).The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde, which sold forty thousand copies in six months,
andKidnappedappeared in 1886, followed byThe Black Arrow(1888)
andThe Master of Ballantrae(1889). In 1888, he set out with his
family for the South Seas, traveling to the leper colony at
Molokai, and finally settling in Samoa, where he died.
Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them
worldwide bestsellers.He is the recipient of the 2014 National
Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for
Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor,
Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
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