Frankenstein authorship question Frankenstein authorship question The "Frankenstein" authorship question is a debate over the role and the extent of Percy Bysshe Shelley's contributions in the writing of the novel "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus", published anonymously in London in 1818. Handwriting analyses have shown that some portions of the original manuscript were written in his handwriting. Arguments on the subject range from arguments that he acted strictly as an editor/reviewer (with actual authorship remaining with Mary Shelley) to claims that he was the sole author. The dispute over authorship began as soon as the novel was published anonymously on January 1, 1818
Prometheus Unbound (Shelley) Este, requesting "The sheets of 'Prometheus Unbound,' which you will find numbered from one to twenty-six on the table of the pavilion." There is little other evidence as to when Shelley began "Prometheus Unbound" while he was living in Italy, but Shelley first mentions his progress in a letter to Thomas Love Peacock on 8 October 1818: "I have been writing – and indeed have just finished the first act of a lyrical and classical drama, to be called 'Prometheus Unbound'." Shelley stopped working on the poem following the death of his daughter Clara Everina Shelley on 24 September 1818.