In1980, deconstructive & psychoanalytic literary theoristBarbara Johnsonwrote an essay onMary Shelleyfor a colloquium on the writings ofJacques Derrida. The essay marked the beginning of Johnson'slifelong interest inShelleyas well as her first foray into the field of"women's studies,"one of whose commitments was the rediscovery & analysis of works by women writers previously excluded from the academic canon. Indeed, the last bookJohnsoncompleted before her death wasMary Shelley & Her Circle, published here for the first time.Shelleywas thus the subject forJohnson'sbeginning in feminist criticism & also for her end.It is surprising to recall that whenJohnsonwrote her essay, only two ofShelley'snovels were in print, critics & scholars having mostly dismissed her writing as inferior & her career as a side effect of her famous husband's. Inspired by groundbreaking feminist scholarship of the seventies,Johnsoncame to pen yet more essays onShelleyover the course of a brilliant but tragically foreshortened career. So much of what we know & think aboutMary Shelleytoday is due to her & a handful of scholars working just decades ago.In this volume,Judith Butler&Shoshana Felmanhave united all ofJohnson'spublished and unpublished work onShelleyalongside their own new, insightful pieces of criticism & those of two other peers & fellow pioneers in feminist theory,Mary Wilson Carpenter&Cathy Caruth. The book thus evolves as a conversation amongst key scholars of shared intellectual inclinations while closing the circle onJohnson'slife & her own fascination with the life & circle of another woman writer, who, of course, also happened to be the daughter of a founder of modern feminism.