Mary Jane Godwin
Mary Jane Godwin (née de Vial; pseudonymed Mary Jane Clairmont; 1768 – 17 June 1841)[1] was an English author, publisher, and bookseller.[2] She was the second wife of William Godwin and stepmother to Mary Shelley.[3]
Mary Jane Godwin
17 June 1841 (aged 72–73)
Mary Jane Clairmont
Author, publisher, bookseller
Fanny Imlay (stepdaughter)
Mary Shelley (stepdaughter)
Allegra Byron (granddaughter)
The Juvenile Library[edit]
Mary Jane Godwin played an active role in the literary and cultural society of the time.[1] Fluent in French, she worked as a translator, as well as being an editor of children's books.[1]
Mary Jane and William Godwin opened, in 1805, a bookshop and publishing house.[1] M. J. Godwin & Co. (as it was known from 1807)[1] published, among other titles, the enduringly popular The Swiss Family Robinson (originally named Family Robinson Crusoe).[10] The shop specialised in literature for children, and also published Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb.[1] It was Mary Jane, not William, who ran the business, which was profitable.[1] Debt and financial troubles plagued the couple throughout their marriage, and the bookshop was eventually lost to bankruptcy.[1]
Death and legacy[edit]
Mary Jane Godwin died at home in London on 17 June 1841, and was buried in St. Pancras churchyard beside her husband.[1] When the remains of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft were moved to the Shelley family vault in Bournemouth, with the development of the nearby railway, Mary Jane's body was not reinterred.[1]
Due in part to the reception of Mary Jane by her stepdaughter, and the remarks made by Godwin's literary friends (who idolised Godwin's first wife, Mary Wollstonecraft), her reputation has suffered and her own work been underestimated.[7] It has since been acknowledged that Mary Jane Godwin occupied a 'singular professional position' as 'the only female publisher of substance in the London literary world of the early 1800s'.[7]
Of the five children she brought up, all of them worked as writers or educators. The eldest and the youngest both pre-deceased her: Fanny in 1816 and William in 1832. Charles Gaulis Clairmont[11] ended up as Chair of English literature at Vienna University[12] and taught sons of the royal family; news of his sudden death in 1849 distressed Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico.[13] Mary eloped with Percy Shelley, the poet, and wrote Frankenstein. Claire accompanied them, had an affair with Lord Byron, and presented Mary Jane Godwin with her first grandchild, Allegra Byron. The little girl died aged five, but later grandchildren were Mary's only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley, and the son and daughter of Charles.