About the Author

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an English philosopher, writer, and feminist. She wrote her most important work, a philosophical treatise titled A Vindication of the Right of Woman, in 1792, and was writing a novelistic sequel to it, titled Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman, during her second pregnancy in 1797. She was unable to finish it, for she died in agony eleven days after giving birth to the author we all know as Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. As a tribute, her husband William Godwin wrote Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of The Rights of Woman. Although the details revealed in the memoir led European society to ostracize Wollstonecraft, she is now regarded as a feminist pioneer. William Godwin (1756-1836) was an English political philosopher, journalist and writer. After Wollstonecraft's death, Godwin raised both Fanny Imlay (her first daughter) and Mary Shelley. Constanza Ontaneda was born in India and grew up in Peru, Brazil, Romania, and the United States. She has an MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from New York University and an MA in Publishing from Western Colorado University's Graduate Program in Creative Writing. She chose this as one of two culminating projects.