Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was a writer and advocate of education and equality for women. One of her most notable works is an early feminist work titled A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In this work, Wollstonecraft attacked "both male dominance and female acquiescence" (Ferguson & Todd 59). Additionally, Wollstonecraft was hailed as one of the first children's literature writers with her book Original Stories From Real Life: With Conversations Calculated to Regulate the Affections, and Form the Mind to Truth and Goodness. For the purposes of brevity, we refer to this work as "Original Stories" within this anthology.
Childhood Life
Mary Wollstonecraft was born on April 27, 1759 in Spitalfields (East End of London). In Moira Ferguson and Janet Todd's Mary Wollstonecraft, a book on Wollstonecraft's life, the authors attribute Wollstonecraft's independence to her paternal grandfather. As an entrepreneur, he got his start as a weaver. Eventually, he expanded his wealth into real estate by leasing property, building houses on it, and renting out that property. Through this, he amassed a large sum of wealth. Wollstonecraft craft's father also took up weaving, becoming an apprentice under his father's company. After Wollstonecraft's paternal grandfather passed away, her father inherited some of his money. This inheritance was not large, and Wollstonecraft's father ended up losing all of it. He had quit his job to pursue a life gentleman farmer, which led to the family moving several times over the course of Wollstonecraft's childhood. Wollstonecraft's father fell into a cycle of personal rage against Wollstonecraft's mother, Wollstonecraft, and her siblings. As a young child, Wollstonecraft would stand guard outside her mother's quarters to save her mother from her father's abuse.Written Work
The abuse Wollstonecraft faced at the hands of her father undoubtedly shaped her work in Original Stories. Many of the lessons from Ms. Mason revolve around financial literacy and the importance of work (rather than social prestige). These lessons in Original Stories stemmed from Wollstonecraft's lived experiences described in the section above. Additionally, Wollstonecraft wrote Original Stories two years after the death of her close friend Frances (Fanny) Blood. During this writing, Wollstonecraft is described as appearing "under great dejection of spirits, and filled with melancholy regret for the loss of her youthful friend" (Godwin 63).Wollstonecraft's most celebrated work, Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was almost never finished. However, her friend and bookseller Mr. Johnson offered an unorthodox moment of support which led to Wollstonecraft finishing the book. When Wollstonecraft was discussing her hardships with finishing the book, Mr. Johnson said that she could simply stop writing the book and he would throw away the pages they already had. This challenged her pride, and she ended up finishing the work (Godwin 77-80). And we are certainly the better for this work being published. Within it, Wollstonecraft articulates the patriarchy, writing that women are "In every state of life the slaves of men" (Godwin 80). This articulation was one of many unorthodox and (at the time) radical declarations of feminism from Mary Wollstonecraft.
Adult Life
Shortly after Wollstonecraft's death, her husband William Godwin published a biography of her life. Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman received a lot of negative feedback. Many readers, as well as the people mentioned in the book, disliked Godwin's openness. A large portion of readers "... felt Godwin had done her [Wollstonecraft] a terrible disservice in telling the world what any decent biographer would have concealed most carefully" (Tomalin 233). Within the memoir, Godwin describes Wollstonecraft's "affairs, suicide attempts and pregnancies" while inaccurately praising her "for her rejection of Christianity" (Tomalin 232).One such love affair was Wollstonecraft's pseudo-marriage to Gilbert Imlay. Although the pair were in love and presented as a married couple to US embassy in France, they were never legally married (Godwin). The relationship resulted in the birth of Fanny Imlay in 1794. The pair spent time moving around France, although rarely living in the same town at the same time. Imlay moved ahead to London and was joined by Wollstonecraft a few months later. During this time, however, Imlay had taken another lover (Godwin 124). This led to a slow degradation of the pair's relationship.
In many ways, Mary Wollstonecraft led a very unconventional life. William Godwin's memoir demonstrates this fact. Additionally, collections like Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft, edited by Ralph M. Wardle, further show Wollstonecraft's unconventional life. However, it can be helpful to bear this quote from Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in mind: Well-behaved women rarely make history.