Library strives to retain ‘Frankenstein’

A government grant has put Oxford’s Bodleian Library within reach of keeping the original draft manuscript of “Frankenstein.”

The $5.1-million grant, announced this week, is the largest ever given by the National Heritage Memorial Fund. The library, which owns most of the Shelley archive, will need to raise $850,000 more to buy the privately owned Abinger Papers, which have been on loan to the institution since 1974.

In a statement, the library said the collection is an archive of major literary significance that includes the 1816-17 draft manuscript of Mary Shelley’s iconic novel featuring many handwritten corrections by the writer’s husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Academics say it provides evidence for the debate about how much Shelley influenced his wife’s writing.

“Researchers from all over the world have visited Oxford until now to study the combined collections of Shelley materials,” said Richard Ovenden, the library’s keeper of special collections and Western manuscripts.

“By purchasing the Abinger collection, we aim to ensure that the Shelley family papers remain united in one location.”

The Abinger Papers also include letters and papers from Mary Shelley’s parents, the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft and the intellectual William Godwin, and correspondence from the poet and his friend, Thomas Malthus, who inspired Charles Darwin.

Mary Shelley dreamed up Frankenstein during the summer of 1816 when the Shelleys vacationed with their friend and fellow writer, Lord Byron, on the shore of Lake Geneva.

Mary Shelley left her papers to her son in 1851 and most were eventually passed on to the Bodleian in 1893. But one-third were given to the earls of Abinger, family of the adopted daughter of Mary Shelley’s daughter-in-law. The eighth Baron Abinger lent his collection to the library in 1974, but the papers remained his property until his death last year. His estate has put them up for sale.

“Few things are more precious than the Shelleys’ personal notes and Mary’s autograph draft of ‘Frankenstein,’ ” said Stephen Johnson, head of the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

“This grant will open up this internationally acclaimed collection for everyone to enjoy in the unique surroundings of the Bodleian Library.”