The writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft died 11 days after a difficult childbirth with her only surviving daughter in 1797. This was, sadly, very common at the time. Her daughter, also named Mary, became a writer too and published Frankenstein in 1818, a book many call the first work of science fiction. But Mary the younger never knew her mother. She grew up reading her mother’s work to remedy that. In one passage from a book published after her death, Mary the senior urged the reader, and her daughter, to live and live now.
“Gain experience — ah! gain it — while experience is worth having, and acquire sufficient fortitude to pursue your own happiness; it includes your utility, by a direct path. What is wisdom too often, but the owl of the goddess, who sits moping in a desolated heart.”
It’s the third week of May and we’re hearing writing along the theme of motherhood this month. Today, Samantha Silva shares one of her own poems, “My Middle.” An author and screenwriter based in Idaho, Silva is known for her works of historical fiction, revolving around writers like Charles Dickens and Mary Wollstonecraft. Her new novel, Sometime This Century, will be published by HarperCollins this June.
Something I Heard is supported by Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
