What do an anarchist, a feminist, a promiscuous atheist vegetarian poet and a horror story writer have in common? If you answered ‘the Shelley Family,‘ you’re half right. Because the New York Public Library in Manhattan has all sorts of very cool materials belonging to Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Mary's parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft on view these days, for the first time in America.

How cool? There's diaries and letters and such, interesting enough. Jewelry too, and locks of hair. And part of the manuscript from Frankenstein. And how about this -- a teething ring made out of gold and coral, for old Percy Bysshe himself.

It's a chance to catch up with some 19th century poets who were rad and edgy when the molten days of the French Revolution had barely cooled down to a crust.

Check it out. Now through late June, at the main library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.