{"product_id":"1882-mary-shelley-percy-shelley-a-unique-typescript-of-the-dowden-wise-mss-frankenstein-lord-byron-more","title":"1882 MARY SHELLEY \u0026 PERCY SHELLEY. A Unique Typescript of the Dowden-Wise MSs - Frankenstein, Lord Byron, \u0026 More.","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn extremely rare, likely one-off typescript \u003cspan class=\"citation-15\"\u003eof \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-15\"\u003eShelley and Mary\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-15 citation-end-15\"\u003e, one of the most historically significant and rare private primary textual archives in nineteenth-century English literary studies.\u003csup class=\"superscript\"\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c\/sup\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"citation-14\"\u003eOriginally printed in 1882 by Percy Bysshe Shelley’s son, Sir Percy Florence Shelley, and daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Shelley, in an extraordinarily restricted run of roughly twelve copies for private family circulation, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-14\"\u003eShelley and Mary\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-14 citation-end-14\"\u003e compiled the original, unedited joint journals, notebooks, and intimate correspondence of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley from their 1814 elopement through Percy’s death in 1822. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis typescript of the 1939 rotograph photographic facsimile edition represents a pivotal moment in American literary scholarship.\u003csup class=\"superscript\"\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c\/sup\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e It made an otherwise inaccessible, heavily guarded family archive available to researchers, bypassing decades of Victorian family censorship and controlling the foundational evidence of second-generation Romanticism. \u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"p-rc_1550f474e888e420-23\"\u003eThe correspondence collection serves as the central documentary backbone for understanding the entire second-generation Romantic circle. \u003cspan class=\"citation-13 citation-end-13\"\u003eBecause Lady Jane Shelley actively worked to cultivate a sanitized Victorian \"legend\" around Percy and Mary, suppressing scandals involving Harriet Westbrook, Claire Clairmont, and Lord Byron, biographers like Edward Dowden relied heavily on curated access to the present texts.\u003csup class=\"superscript\"\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c\/sup\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e The unvarnished journal entries and correspondence in \u003ci\u003eShelley and Mary\u003c\/i\u003e detail the daily intellectual, financial, and emotional ecosystem binding the Shelleys to figures like Lord Byron, William Godwin, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Love Peacock, Edward Trelawny, and Claire Clairmont. By preserving unredacted exchanges, the archive allows scholars to trace real-time creative cross-pollination, political debates, personal fallouts, and shared reading lists across the entire movement without relying on secondhand Victorian romanticization. \u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"p-rc_1550f474e888e420-24\"\u003eOf special interest, the primary material within \u003cem\u003eShelley and Mary \u003c\/em\u003eis indispensable in developing an authorial understanding of Mary Shelley's gothic classic, \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein\u003c\/i\u003e. The daily journals and letters spanning 1816 to 1818 capture the exact chronology of the novel’s genesis. \u003cspan class=\"citation-12 citation-end-12\"\u003eThey document the atmospheric summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva, the famous ghost-story contest proposed by Lord Byron, and Mary's recorded waking nightmare that spawned the Creature.\u003csup class=\"superscript\"\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c\/sup\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e Crucially, these papers reveal the intimate reading regimen Mary pursued while writing the novel, spanning Locke, Rousseau, Milton, Lucretius, and contemporary scientific works by Humphry Davy and Erasmus Darwin, proving the deep philosophical rigor underlying her masterpiece. Furthermore, the textual record clarifies the nature of Percy Shelley’s editorial participation in the draft, showing his inline suggestions and critical feedback while cementing \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein\u003c\/i\u003e as distinctively Mary’s original conceptual vision shaped within a rich collaborative dialogue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe typescript was supervised by Professor Frederick L. Jones of Mercer University, being painstakingly typed by hand from 1933 to 1939. The handwritten corrections, notations, and commentary throughout the text almost certainly by Jones himself, spanning the entirety of the more than 1200 folio pages.. He would go on to become one of the most influential Shelley scholars of the 20th century, authoring or editing \u003cem\u003eThe Letters of Mary Shelley \u003c\/em\u003e[1944]; \u003cem\u003eMary Shelley's Journal \u003c\/em\u003e[1947]; \u003cem\u003eMary Shelley and Maria Gisborne. New Letters \u003c\/em\u003e[1955]; \u003cem\u003eShelley's Friends. Their Journals and Letters \u003c\/em\u003e[1951]; \u003cem\u003eAn Examination of the Shelley Legend \u003c\/em\u003e[1951]; \u003cem\u003eThe Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley \u003c\/em\u003e[1964]; etc. All of these works share one thing in common; they share the present typescript as their genetic parent. Whether another example exists is uncertain. We have been unable to locate one; this likely the typescript overseen by Jones and the only extant typescript of the \u003cem\u003eShelley and Mary\u003c\/em\u003e in existence. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach volume signed by Donald H. Reiman [d.2019], to whom it likely passed after Jones' death. He would become the author of \u003cem\u003ePercy Bysshe Shelley\u003c\/em\u003e [Twayne], co-editor of Shelley and His Circle [Harvard Press]; co-editor of \u003cem\u003eShelley's Poetry and Prose \u003c\/em\u003e[W. W. Norton]; editor \u003cem\u003eThe\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eRomantics Reviewed\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003eThe Romantic Context: Poetry\u003cspan\u003e, General Editor of \u003c\/span\u003eManuscripts of the Younger Romantics \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Bodleian Shelley Manuscripts \u003c\/em\u003e[Garland Publishing]; editor \u003cem\u003eThe Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley\u003c\/em\u003e [Johns Hopkins University Press] etc. etc. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThree large folios, containing:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e[Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Frankenstein] Shelley and Mary. Volume I \u0026amp; Volume II. An Exact Page-by Page Reproduction of the Dowden-Wise-British Museum Copy of the Original Book. Made from the Modern Language Association Rotograph No. 278, on Deposit in the Library of Congress. Mercer University, Supervised by Frederick L. Jones. 1939. For Private Circulation Only. 466pp. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[With]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e[Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Frankenstein] Shelley and Mary. Volume III. An Exact Page-by Page Reproduction of the Dowden-Wise-British Museum Copy of the Original Book. Made from the Modern Language Association Rotograph No. 278, on Deposit in the Library of Congress. Mercer University, Supervised by Frederick L. Jones. 1939. For Private Circulation Only. 467-908pp. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[With]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e[Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Frankenstein] Shelley and Mary. Volume IV. An Exact Page-by Page Reproduction of the Dowden-Wise-British Museum Copy of the Original Book. Made from the Modern Language Association Rotograph No. 278, on Deposit in the Library of Congress. Mercer University, Supervised by Frederick L. Jones. 1939. For Private Circulation Only. 909-1243pp. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBound in buckram with faux marbled endpapers by National Library Bindery, c.1939\/1940. Cloth has some light wear and bumping with some surface stains as shown. Contents exceptionally clean with exception of the original MSs notes inserted. Irreplaceable. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Specs Fine Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51214326431780,"sku":null,"price":3250.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0093\/3910\/9435\/files\/08-06-2026SpecsFineBooks-15.jpg?v=1786068458","url":"https:\/\/specsfinebooks.com\/products\/1882-mary-shelley-percy-shelley-a-unique-typescript-of-the-dowden-wise-mss-frankenstein-lord-byron-more","provider":"Specs Fine Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}