English author, philosopher, and protofeminist Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which was an early critique of conventional femininity. Her career was cut short by her death at age thirty-eight, eleven days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later, Shelley)—who would go on to write Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft's husband, philosopher William Godwin, posthumously published a memoir about his wife, revealing her unorthodox lifestyle, which inadvertently tarnished her reputation for more than a century. Today, however, Wollstonecraft's individuality is celebrated, and she is considered one of feminism's earliest, most influential figures.