On 17 June 2008 I gave a talk at the Boston Athenaeum on my book, The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein (2001).  The turnout was good — from 80 to 100 people. Wine and cheese were served afterwards. The talk was recorded by WGBH and is now online.  Click on URL below and then click on video:



    I had a struggle to speak, as I was suffering from laryngitis.  At one point I erroneously cited Mark Twain's essay as “In Defence of Mary Shelley”, when I meant to say, “In Defence of Harriet Shelley”.  During the discussion period, I neglected to repeat the questions before responding to them.  Since the questions were inaudible on the recording, the WGBH engineers deleted them, with the result that my responses run from one to another, without the intervening questions that prompted them.  For example, one woman asked who Donald Reiman was, and I answered her question — charitably, I believe.

        — John Lauritsen


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