Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, celebrated on Frankenstein Day

writersAug 30, 2026483,925

August 30 marks Mary Shelley’s birthday and is observed by readers and critics as Frankenstein Day. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born August 30, 1797 and died February 1, 1851. Critics note her 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and her 1826 pandemic novel The Last Man, which places its action into the future and culminates in the year 2092. The Last Man’s narrator Lionel Verney has often been read as Shelley’s closest psychological self-portrait as he wrestles with why to keep living after a world-ending plague. Commentators highlight Shelley’s answer to that question as ethical and social: "There is but one solution to the intricate riddle of life; to improve ourselves, and contribute to the happiness of others," as quoted from Shelley. Film critics at Crooked Marquee say three recent screen variations on Frankenstein finally foreground the passionate feminist perspective they attribute to Shelley’s work. Observances on Frankenstein Day combine celebration of Frankenstein’s cultural legacy with renewed attention to Shelley’s wider, often bleak but poetic prose and her lifelong efforts to preserve Percy Bysshe Shelley’s reputation.

Abigail Larson

@abigaillarson.com

Happy Birthday, Mary Shelley! Born on this day in 1797 🫀

Digital illustration by Abigail Larson depicting a stylized portrait of Mary Shelley

304745d ago

Rue9

QUEEN OF GOTH BADDIES, NO ONE DOING IT LIKE HER

M. Belanger6

Mary to Percy (probably): I will hold your heart close until my death -literally- (I love the little detail of the human heart here because if you know, you know)

A Nobody with No Name3

Happiest Birthday to the woman who reinvented science fiction. Inspiring writers, artists, & goths for generations. Who despite her grief, being surrounded by misogyny, & everything else made something truly remarkable. And refused to compromise her work that continues to inspire.

Jaime Narnia Christley2

Evan Rachel Wood was so locked in as MS youtu.be/zPBv9SGgwho?...

SpookyNate(18+)2

We don't applaud her efforts enough she was the 1st Science Fiction author

Lisa Pett2

Losing her virginity in a grave yard on her mother’s grave Hard core goth girl! 🫀

Quoting this

𝓛𝓾𝓷𝓪 🌙15

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARY SHELLY 😭🖤 ILY

Eva Leigh12

I'm so happy I share a birthday with her!

Nostalgic Things6

Her full name is Mary Why Don’t You Boys Just Shut The Fuck Up Shelly

Michele, a Ghost of Cinders3

Ah, of course. Fitting, with how how I've been thinking about her. Celebrate, y'all.

Prince - Dumb Bunny Sly Fox2

Mother to Goths and lovers of Gothic Literature. Patron Saint of the Weird n' Queer Writers

Admirable Women

@admirablewomen.bsky.social

English novelist, poet & essayist Mary Shelley was born #OTD in 1797. Daughter of famed philosopher & feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley is best known for her 1818 Gothic novel "Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus." www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-w... #LitSky #BookSky #gothic

A dramatic, artistic composite portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851), the English novelist best known as the author of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). The image overlays a classic 19th-century oil painting-style depiction of Shelley—shown in a three-quarter view with pale skin, dark curly hair parted in the center and falling softly around her face, large expressive brown eyes gazing directly and thoughtfully at the viewer, and wearing a low-cut black off-the-shoulder gown typical of Regency-era fashion—onto a dark, textured background filled with layers of translucent, handwritten manuscript text in faded ink. The overlaid script appears to be excerpts from Frankenstein (or closely related drafts), featuring Mary Shelley’s own elegant, flowing cursive handwriting with crossed-out words, revisions, and phrases such as “the wretched phantom,” “catastrophe,” “limbs,” “rain,” “window,” “features,” “great God,” “skin scarcely covered,” “work of muscles and arteries,” and other evocative fragments describing the Creature’s creation and appearance. The text swirls and overlaps around her face and shoulders like ghostly memories or the very pages of her groundbreaking novel coming to life, creating a haunting, literary effect that symbolizes how her personal experiences, intellectual circle (including Percy Shelley and Lord Byron), and the famous 1816 ghost-story contest at Villa Diodati inspired one of literature’s most enduring and influential works on creation, responsibility, isolation, and the ethics of science.

13045d ago

jordan

@jordantyranny.bsky.social

“I shall thus give a general answer to the question, so frequently asked me—”How I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?” Writes Mary Shelley in her introduction to the third edition of Frankenstein,1831.

12645d ago

jordan27

“Mary Shelley, carried her dead husband's heart wherever she went.” Mary Shelley kept what was believed to be her husband Percy Shelley's unburned heart wrapped in his poetry inside her desk for almost 30 years. She stored it in her writing case rather than carrying it on her person at all times.

jordan27

In the end, at every end, all any of us have left is Hume's guillotine: "What ought to be cannot be deduced from what is."

Richard Kadrey

@richardkadrey.bsky.social

Happy birthday to the mother of SF, Mary Shelley

10044d ago

Quoting this

Sean Connell2

Okay, learning this is the best birthday present ever.* *Hyperbole, yes, but nonetheless.

M. Belanger

@sethanikeem.bsky.social

Happy birthday to Mary Shelley whose idea of taking her boyfriends home to meet her mom was having sex with them on top of her mother’s grave Goth AF before we could even fully appreciate the term

4645d ago

Science Magazine

@science.org

This cover illustration reimagines the monster first conjured in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's 1818 novel. On #FrankensteinDay, learn more about the story's lasting legacy on the scientific enterprise, which was investigated in a 2018 issue of Science: https://scim.ag/3UPzBH7

The cover illustration reimagines the monster first conjured in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel.

4045d ago

Simon Spanton

@simonguy.bsky.social

"Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master;—obey!" Happy birthday, Mary Shelley.

A photo of a copy of the 1961 Everyman paperback edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The cover is by James Boswell.

3545d ago

Gaijin Rando

@gaijinrando.bsky.social

Images from films inspired by the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley - BOTD in 1797 Jesse James vs. Frankenstein's Daughter (1966) Mad Monster Party? (1967) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Runaway Brain (1995)

Jesse James vs. Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)

2945d ago

⛧ Mother Suspiria ⛧ (Stina Marie)

@stinasdemons.com

Happy Birthday, Mary 🖤 Watercolor and ink, by me 😈🎨🦇🩸 (Yes, the text layout isn't ideal. No, you will not be the first person to make the "Don't Dead Open Inside" joke. I made this several years ago. I would do it differently if I made it today.)

Watercolor portrait of Mary Shelley with a Frankenstein quote

2544d ago

J.A.Tallon

@tallon.bsky.social

Mary Shelley (with scenes from the film "Santo Vs. Frankenstein's Daughter", inspired by Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein") - BOTD

2545d ago

SF Encyclopedia

@sfencyclopedia.bsky.social

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/shelle... was born on this day, so here are some of her book covers (Artist: Celestino Piatti, Daniel Sauer, [couldn't identify] and Noel Fisher):

The cover to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's "Frankenstein oder Der neue Prometheus"

2245d ago

Bruce LaBruce

@brucelabruce.bsky.social

English novelist Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was BOTD in 1797 & died in 1851 at 53. She eloped w/ pansexual atheist English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley at 16. Elsa Lanchester famously played Mary Shelley and the titular role in Whale's "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935)