William Godwin manuscript material : 383 items 1778-1836

William Godwin, English philosopher and novelist. Godwin achieved celebrity at the end of the eighteenth century with the philosophical treatise Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and the novel Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams. His first wife was Mary Wollstonecraft, pioneer for women's rights, and their only child together grew up to become Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. Godwin's philosophies greatly influenced the political mind of his son-in-law, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The William Godwin manuscript material in the Pforzheimer Collection consists of writings, correspondence, promissory notes, and various other documents. The writings include: complete holograph manuscript drafts of his works Fleetwood, Coludesley, and Lives of the Necromancers; manuscript drafts of essays from his Enquirer; and proof revisions written in volumes of his Political Justice and St. Leon. The bulk of the correspondence is dated 1795-1834 and mostly discusses Godwin's research, business matters and financial arrangements. Correspondents include: Mary Shelley, novelist (his daughter); Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet (his son-in-law); Aaron Burr, vice president of the United States; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet; and over one hundred others. The promissory notes date from between 1804-1818, and are mostly to neighborhood merchants. Other documents include library call slips, memos of agreement for business deals, and Godwin's last will and testament.