Mary Shelley
Mary endured several traumatic miscarriages, and only one of her children, Percy Florence, survived infancy. Her son William, who died at the age of four, was buried in the Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome, the place where his father would also one day be buried. After the death of her husband, in 1823 Mary returned to live alone in London, rejecting the courtship of both men and women as she continued to write. Apart from her own writing, the remainder of her life was spent in editing the poetry of her late husband, and caring for her only surviving son. According to his father’s wishes, Percy Florence was educated at Harrow and then at Cambridge, progressing to a happy and conventional marriage, and remaining close to his mother for the rest of her life.
