From ghoulies, ghosties and long-legged beasties to things that go bump in the night, it's one of our favorite times of year - Halloween. In the laboratory spotlight is Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, better known as Mary Shelley. Although she penned other novels, Shelley's best-known for her Gothic classic, Frankenstein,or, The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818. Her own life reads like a nightmare on Elm Street: Born Aug. 30, 1797, in London, Shelley grew up motherless (her mom died 11 days after giving birth to her), lost a sister to suicide and buried three children. In 1822, her husband, Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley, drowned, leaving her a widow at 25. Shelley never remarried and died in 1851 at age 53. To pay homage to the Queen of Halloween, we unmask her family history.

1. Shelley's mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote