Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was born in London to a family with an abusive father. She left home after her mother died in 1780, and by 1784, she, her sister, Eliza, and friend Fanny founded a school for girls. She left the school in 1785 for a governess job in Ireland, and in 1787 she wrote Thoughts on the Education of Daughters based on her teaching experiences.Leaving Ireland the following year, she began working as a translator for the publisher Joseph Johnson. Later, in 1788, Johnson launched the radical periodical Analytical Review for which Wollstonecraft wrote frequently. It was during this period that she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.In 1792, Wollstonecraft visited France to witness the social upheaval there as the French Revolution was underway. She also began an affair with an American, Gilbert Imlay, which resulted in the birth of a daughter, Fanny.

Two years later, the relationship with Imlay having ended, Wollstonecraft returned to London and her work with Joseph Johnson. It was there she met her future husband, William Godwin, with whom she had a second daughter, Mary. On September 10, 1797, eleven days after her daughter Mary's birth, Wollstonecraft died.