Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Letter to Sir Walter Scott on Display For One Day Only
Letter from Mary Shelley to Sir Walter Scott on the authorship of Frankenstein dated June 14, 1818
The National Library of Scotland is holding a pop-up display of Frankenstein-related material on November 7 to coincide with the release of Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel on Netflix.
The chief attraction is a letter from Shelley to Sir Walter Scott in which she corrects Scott for mistakenly assuming that the book was written by her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
“Frankenstein was published anonymously in January 1818," said Library Curator Dr Kirsty McHugh. "Percy Shelley sent the book to Scott for review in Blackwood’s Magazine and so Scott assumed Percy to be the author. Mary Shelley takes care to be tactful in her letter to Scott, letting him know the identity of the author lest the same error was repeated.”
Also on display will be items from the Library’s archive and printed collections demonstrating the enduring appeal of Frankenstein including some of the early reissues of the work as it grew in popularity.
One of Mary Shelley’s most important champions in the 20th century was the Scottish writer Muriel Spark (1918–2006) and the display will include items demonstrating Spark’s lifelong fascination with her along with other Scottish writers inspired by Frankenstein such as Liz Lochhead, Janice Galloway and Alasdair Gray.
The display will take place on November 7 from 11am until 4pm at the National Library at George IV Bridge in Edinburgh. No booking is required and entry is free.
