Today, we meet the grandmother of Frankenstein. The University
of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about
the machines that make our civilization run, and the people
whose ingenuity created them. Mary Wollstonecraft was born in
England in 1759. She was raised by an abusive father and a put-
upon mother. Early in life she set out to support herself --
first as companion to a wealthy lady, then as a teacher, and
later as a governess. Finally, in 1787, she settled in London to
earn her living as a writer. There she joined an astonishing
intellectual circle that met in rooms over a bookstore. The poet
William Blake was a member. So was Joseph Priestley. He was the
dissident minister and scientist who first isolated oxygen. The
American Thomas Paine was a member. His pamphlet, Common Sense,
had fueled the American Revolution. These were primary theorists
of Mary Wollstonecraft began writing on the role of women, but
in fairly guarded terms. She wrote a novel. She wrote a book on
educating young