Saving Frankenstein:

Bodleian Library receives award towards purchase of Abinger Papers

The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford has been awarded £3 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund towards the purchase of the Abinger Papers, an archive of major literary significance which includes the surviving manuscripts of Mary Shelley’s famous novel Frankenstein. It is the largest grant ever received by the Library towards a single purchase.

The Abinger Papers are the most important collection of Shelley family papers remaining in private hands. The papers include the Frankenstein original draft manuscript of 1816–17, which reveals the novel in its process of conception. The draft contains many autograph corrections by Mary’s poet husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and so provides unique evidence for the much disputed question: how far did Percy Shelley influence his wife’s masterpiece?

The Abinger Papers form one third of the Shelley family papers, including letters and papers of Mary Shelley’s parents, Mary Wollstonecraft (the ground-breaking feminist writer) and William Godwin (a major intellectual figure of the period). Two thirds already belong outright to the Bodleian Library through gifts from the family. The remaining third, the Abinger section, has been deposited on loan at the Library since 1974 for the benefit of scholars, but is now offered for sale.

The Bodleian Library is launching an appeal to raise the remaining funds needed to purchase the collection. Richard Ovenden, Keeper of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts, said: ‘Thanks to the Fund’s outstandingly generous grant, and other donations already received of almost £350,000, the Library now has until March 2004 to raise the remaining £500,000 to buy the collection and so prevent its dispersal at auction. Researchers from all over the world have visited Oxford until now to study the combined collections of Shelley materials. By purchasing the Abinger collection, we aim to ensure that the Shelley family papers remain united in one location.’

Stephen Johnson, Head of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, said: ‘The Abinger Papers are exactly the kind of Great British heritage that the National Heritage Memorial Fund was set up to save. Few things are more precious than the Shelleys’ personal notes and Mary’s autograph draft of Frankenstein. This grant will open up this internationally acclaimed collection for everyone to enjoy in the unique surroundings of the Bodleian Library.’

For further information, including pictures of Mary Shelley and of the Frankenstein manuscript, please contact the Press Office on 01865 280528.

Selected images from the Abinger Collection.

Notes to editors:

Pictures offered:
- Page from Mary Shelley’s draft manuscript of Frankenstein, with Percy Bysshe Shelley’s corrections: ‘It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld my man completed ...’. © Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
- Portrait miniature of Mary Shelley by Reginald Easton. © Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
Mary Shelley is the central figure of the collection, but it also includes the accumulated papers of her family. There are many letters of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97), the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women and a revolutionary social thinker of major importance. It encompasses the archive of her father William Godwin (1756–1836), the first modern anarchist philosopher, including his journal in 32 volumes (1788–1836) and letters from correspondents such as William Hazlitt, Thomas Holcroft and Thomas R. Malthus. There are papers of her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley; and their joint journal, which starts with Percy Shelley's account of their elopement in 1814.
The Abinger papers are the last third of the Shelley family collection, left by Mary Shelley to her son Sir Percy Florence Shelley in 1851. His widow, Lady Shelley, gave a major part of the collection to the Bodleian Library in 1893–4. A second part also reached the Library in 1946 and 1961, through the gift and bequest of Sir John Shelley-Rolls. The remainder had been bequeathed by Lady Shelley to the family of her adopted daughter, the Scarlett family (Barons Abinger). The 8th Baron Abinger deposited these papers on loan at the Bodleian Library from 1974 onwards. Following his death in 2002, this is the part now offered for sale to the Library, to reunite the collection.
Modern writers such as William St Clair, Claire Tomalin, Miranda Seymour, Betty T Bennett and Charles E Robinson have drawn heavily on the deposited Abinger papers for major biographies and editions. An edition of the Shelley journal was published in 1987, and a facsimile edition of the Frankenstein manuscripts in 1996.
Those wishing to support the Library in securing this important collection should contact Richard Ovenden, Keeper of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts. Bodleian Library, Broad Street, Oxford. OX1 3BG. Tel. 01865 277158, fax 01865 277187, email richard.ovenden@ouls.ox.ac.uk.
The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) was set up by Parliament in 1980 with the proceeds of the National Land Fund, in the aftermath of an enormous public outcry over the failure to save the Victorian country house, Mentmore and its contents. The Fund was established as a memorial to those who gave their lives for this country and it continues to operate as a fund of 'last resort', focussing on saving heritage which is under threat, whether from sale overseas, the break-up of collections, or, in the case of land, from unsympathetic development. The Fund currently receives £5m grant in aid from the Government each year. For further information on the NHMF please contact Lisa Mangan or Sam Goody on 020 7591 6032 or 6033.