Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (born Godwin 1797, died 1851) was an English novelist, short-story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus first published in 1818. She edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. She was also the mother of four children, and a single parent to her only surviving child, supporting them with her writing.

Esther K. Mbithi is a lecturer at Kenyatta University, Kenya.