Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poet and Husband of Mary Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Portrait by Amelia Curran 1819

Percy Bysshe Shelley is among the most esteemed poets of the eighteenth century. He was a very passionate man and his work reflected his passion. Much of what he did and wrote during his lifetime was considered inappropriate; he was a man who lived by his own rules. He set a lot of stock in his feelings and it’s obvious that he abided by them. His actions were often rash and they got him into trouble at times. However, he was considered a peacekeeper and a kind man in his circle of friends, which included many other great writers of the time.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on August 4, 1792, in Sussex. He was the oldest of Timothy and Elizabeth Shelley’s seven children. He had a very privileged childhood as the grandson of a baronet and the son of a future baronet. He attended Syon House Academy from 1802 to 1804 and was enrolled in Eton when he finished. He attended Eton until 1810, when he enrolled in University College, Oxford. That year, Percy’s father published two of his son’s poetry compilations and two of his novels.

Percy attended Oxford for a few months before he was thrown out of the school. He and his roommate were accused of writing a pamphlet called “The Necessity of Atheism.” At the time, this would have been considered very bad and, as neither of them were admitting nor denying writing the pamphlet, they were expelled.

By this time in his life, Percy Bysshe Shelley was an atheist and a radical thinker. Timothy Shelley disapproved of his son’s beliefs very much and tried to get Percy to change his ways. However, Percy refused and later ran off with a coffee house owner’s daughter in August of 1811. The girl’s name was Harriet Westbrook and Percy married her. Timothy helped to provide for his son and his new wife, but he refused to speak to Percy anymore after that.

In 1812, the couple went to Ireland to promote Shelley’s political views. They were home by the following year when their first child, Ianthe was born. In 1814, the relationship came to an end when Percy fell in love with the daughter of William Godwin, the author of “Political Justice.”  The young lady who Percy fell in love with would one day become one of the most famous authors of all time.

Percy’s new love was named MaryGodwin and she was only sixteen years old when the two of them ran off together in July of 1814. Percy was still married to Harriet and she gave birth to a son named Charles in November of that year. Mary was pregnant at the time. In February of 1815, Mary gave birth to a daughter, who died just a few days after she was born. In January of 1816, she gave birth to a son named William. During the summer of that year, eighteen-year-old Mary began working on the novel “Frankenstein.”

Near the end of 1816, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s wife committed suicide by drowning. When her body was found in a river, it was discovered that she was pregnant, presumably by a man other than her husband. In December, Mary and Percy married and attempted to gain custody of Percy’s children by Harriet. However, on March 27, 1817 Shelley was found to be an unfit parent (largely due to his work) and his children were placed in foster care. In September of that year, the Shelleys had a daughter named Clara.

Two years later, both Clara and William died, the family moved to Italy and Percy and Mary had another son, who they named Percy Florence. The couple had many friends in Italy and it would seem that Percy had a few romantic interests there too. Unfortunately, his life was cut short while he was sailing from a visit with one of these friends. Percy became caught in a storm on the Mediterranean Sea and drowned on July 8, 1822. After his death, Mary edited and published some of his work for him.

Sources

Everett, Glenn, Shelley Biography, retrieved 9/23/09 victorianweb.org/previctorians/shelley/bio.html

Percy Bysshe Shelley, retrieved 9/23/09, 

Ernest Hemingway's Childhood

Ernest Hemingway circa 1905

Ernest Hemingway is one of the most beloved and talented American authors of all time. He was born on July 21, 1899 to Dr. Clarence Hemingway and his wife, Grace Hall Hemingway. Ernest was born in the house that was built by his grandfather on North Oak Park Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois. He had one older sister at the time of his birth and would eventually have three more sisters and one brother.

Ernest grew up in Oak Park, which was a tight knit religious community. Ernest would refer to the town later in life as a place that contained “wide lawns and narrow minds.” His mother taught music to the children in the community and she also taught music to her children. Ernest took voice lessons and learned to play the cello from his mother. However, the influence that Grace Hall Hemingway had on her son was not all good.

Until Ernest was six years old, his mother dressed him and his older sister Marcelline as twins, which they were not. The oddest thing about this behavior was that she would either dress them both as girls or both as boys. Grace was also exempt from doing household chores, which Clarence would take care of for her, despite his work as a doctor. Rumor has it that Grace nagged her husband relentlessly. Ernest apparently blamed his father’s suicide in 1928 on his mother. He said later in life that “My mother is an all time all American *expletive deleted* and she would make a pack mule shoot himself; let alone poor bloody father.”

Ernest’s relationship with his father was quite different from the one he had with his mother. Clarence spent a lot of time teaching his son how to fish and hunt in the Lake Michigan area. The Hemingways spent their summers at Windemere, the family’s summer home. Ernest spent that time fishing and hunting with his father or on his own. His love for the outdoors would continue throughout his life.

Ernest Hemingway attended the Oak Park public schools. He kept notebooks and journals as he got older and by the time he was in high school, it had become obvious that Ernest wanted to be a writer. He wrote for the school’s newspaper, the “Trapeze” and he also wrote for the school’s yearbook, the Tabula. Ernest also played several sports in high school. He wasn’t bad, but he was never a star athlete either. He graduated high school at the age of seventeen.

After Ernest’s graduation his parents expected him to go off to college, but he had different plans. He immediately went to work at the Kansas City Star. That was the start of his long and prolific career as a journalist and an author.