Today is the birthday of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), the mother of modern science fiction and one of my favorite authors.
* Mary Shelley's works available at Project Gutenberg
* Mary Shelley's work available at LibriVox

Incidentally, the University of Nebraska Press has just published a new edition of my favorite work by Shelley, The Last Man.


And speaking of science fiction, I have two recommendations:
* I am a tremendous fan of The Teaching Company anyway, but I especially recommend Professor Eric Rabkin's course Science Fiction: The Literature of the Technological Imagination.
* I am currently listening to and, unsurprisingly, thoroughly enjoying my colleague Professor Michael D.C. Drout's course for Recorded Books, From Here To Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction Literature.


A quote for the day, from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley:

Have any of you, my readers, observed the ruins of an anthill immediately after its destruction? At first it appears entirely deserted of its former inhabitants; in a little time you see an ant struggling through the upturned mould; they reappear by twos and threes, running hither and thither in search of their lost companions. Such were we upon earth, wondering aghast at the effects of pestilence. Our empty habitations remained, but the dwellers were gathered to the shades of the tomb.
- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The Last Man