In the preface to the third edition of "Frankenstein", Mary Shelley described a villa party in which Lord Byron challenged each of them to begin a ghost story. In attendance also was Percy Shelley, and Byron's physician Polidori.
She described her inability to come up with an idea until one sleepless night in her room, behind closed shutters "with the moonlight struggling to get through".
She continued: "I saw with shut eyes, but acute mental vision – I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life …"
Artistic license? What day did she start writing? Texas astronomers and historical sleuths say they have the answer - they say her inspiration came in a waking dream between 2 AM and 3 AM June 16th, 1816.
Read the details in The Moon&The Origin of Frankenstein and Tim Radford in The Guardian.
When Was Frankenstein Created? Astronomers Figure It Out
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