Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly

   For the fans of horror there is one who truly belongs among
the top rankings.  She may not have written as many books as
some have written, though she did write one particular book which
literally stalked the history pages.
  Her name was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly (I will refer to her
as Mary Shelly), and the book is Frankenstein: or, The Modern
Prometheus.  
  Mary Shelly wrote the story during a weekend gathering with
her poet husband Percy Shelly and a few other couples.  On one
stormy night the group decided to take part in a writing contest
to see who could write the best ghost story, and through the
course of that night, Mary wrote what would become a new age of
horror, a new creature from which we could all have nightmares,
and Hollywood could present on everlasting film how the mad
Dr. Frankenstein would create the most horrifying of creatures.
  The Frankenstein monster probably doesn't scare people today
as it did in my younger years, but his presence has inspired
many monster tales and movies, as did his earlier rival, Dracula.
I do have to make mention of these other 'monsters', as they
truly have bearing on our creature, such as the Wolfman and
the Mummy.  I have been a dedicated horror fan most of my life,
which was from about age seven, and Frankenstein stands flat-
headed tall above all the others... three bolts of lightening
for Frankenstein and the imagination of Mary Shelly!