Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the most distinctive letter writers of her eighteenth century: to read her letters today is to trace her thoughts on paper. In this unique volume of her correspondence, we follow her from the girl of fourteen leaving home to become a lady's companion, to the woman of thirty-eight, facing death in childbirth. The letters reveal her desire to reconcile personal integrity and sexual longing; motherhood and intellectual life; reason and passion. Touching and engaging, they form a compelling autobiographical document of one of Britain's most radical thinkers and writers.