{{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox Writer/doc -->
| name =William Godwin
| image = WilliamGodwin.jpg|thumb|right
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| birthplace = Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England 
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| deathplace = London, England
| occupation = Political philosopher, novelist
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'''William Godwin''' (English journalist, political philosopher and An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice'', an attack on British radicalism, Godwin was attacked, in part because of his marriage to the pioneering feminist writer Mary Godwin (later Mary Shelley) would go on to author ''Charles and Mary Lamb's ''Tales from Shakespeare''. He also has had considerable influence on British literature and literary culture.

== Early life and education: ==
Godwin was born in minister in Guestwick in Norfolk, died young, and never inspired love or much regret in his son; but in spite of wide differences of opinion, tender affection always subsisted between William Godwin and his mother, until her death at an advanced age.

William Godwin was educated for his father's profession at biographer and Dr Calvin had "damned ninety-nine in a hundred of mankind, has contrived a scheme for damning ninety-nine in a hundred of the followers of Calvin."

He then acted as a minister at republican opinions. Godwin came to London in 1782, still nominally as a minister, to regenerate society with his pen &mdash; a real enthusiast, who shrank theoretically from no conclusions from the premises which he laid down. He adopted the principles of the Encyclopaedists, and his own aim was the complete overthrow of all existing institutions, political, social and religious. He believed, however, that calm discussion was the only thing needful to carry every change, and from the beginning to the end of his career he deprecated every approach to violence. He was a philosophic radical in the strictest sense of the term.

== Early writing ==
His first published work was an anonymous ''Lord Stanhope, Horne Tooke and Holcroft.

== ''Enquiry Concerning Political Justice'' and ''Caleb Williams'' ==
In 1793, while the Enquiry concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness''. The first part of this book was largely a recap of anarchist critique of the Paine, Godwin's was the most popular written response to the French Revolution. Godwin's work was seen by many as illuminating a middle way between the fiery extremes of both Burke and Paine. Prime Minister William Pitt famously said that there was no need to censor it, because at over £1 it was too costly for the average Englishman to buy. However, as was the practice at the time, numerous "corresponding societies" took up ''Political Justice'', either sharing it or having it read to the illiterate members. Eventually, it sold over 4000 copies and brought literary fame to Godwin.

Godwin augmented the influence of the ''Political Justice'' with his publication of an equally popular novel, ''Things as They Are or The Adventures of Caleb Williams'', which tells the story of a servant who finds out a dark secret about Falkland, his aristocratic master, and is forced to flee because of his knowledge. ''Caleb Williams'' is essentially the first thriller:<ref></ref> Godwin wryly remarked that some readers were consuming in a night what took him over a year to write. Not the least of its merits is a portrait of the English justice system at the time and a prescient picture of domestic espionage. Yet Godwin's strenuous Calvinism still obtains, if in secular form. At the conclusion of the novel, when Caleb Williams finally confronts Falkland, the encounter fatally wounds the Lord, who immediately admits the justness of Williams' cause. Far from feeling release or happiness, Williams only sees the destruction of someone who remains for him a noble, if fallen person. Implicitly, ''Caleb Williams'' ratifies Godwin's assertion that society must be reformed in order for individual behaviour to be reformed, an emphasis that allies him more with Marxism and anarchism than liberalism. His literary method, as he described it in the introduction to the novel, also was influential: Godwin began with the conclusion of Caleb being chased through England and Ireland and developed the plot backwards. Dickens and Poe both commented on Godwin's ingenuity in doing this.

== Political writing ==

In response to a treason trial of some of his fellow English Jacobins, among them Thomas Holcroft, Godwin wrote ''Cursory Strictures on the Charge Delivered by Lord Chief Justice Eyre to the Grand Jury, October 2, 1794'' where he forcefully argued that that the prosecution's concept of "constructive treason" allowed a judge to construe ''any'' behaviour as treasonous. It paved the way for a major, but mostly moral, victory for the Jacobins, as they were acquitted. 

However, Godwin's own reputation was eventually besmirched after 1798 by the conservative press, in part because he chose to write a candid biography of his dead wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, including accounts of her two suicide attempts and her affair with Gilbert Imlay, which resulted in the birth of Fanny Imlay. 

Godwin, consistent in his theory and stubborn in his practice, practically lived in secret for 30 years because of his reputation. However, in its influence, on writers like Shelley, Kropotkin, and others, ''Political Justice'' takes its place with Milton's ''Locke's ''Rousseau's ''Émile'' as an anarchist and libertarian text.

== Interpretation of political justice ==
By the words "political justice" the author meant "''the adoption of any principle of morality and truth into the practice of a community,''" and the work was therefore an inquiry into the principles of society, of morals. For many years Godwin had been "''satisfied that monarchy was a species of government unavoidably corrupt,''" and from desiring a government of the simplest construction, he gradually came to consider that "''government by its very nature counteracts the improvement of original mind,''" demonstrating anti-statist beliefs that would later be considered Anarchist.

Believing in the perfectibility of the race, that there are no innate principles, and therefore no original propensity to evil, he considered that "''our virtues and our vices may be traced to the incidents which make the history of our lives, and if these incidents could be divested of every improper tendency, vice would be extirpated from the world.''" All control of man by man was more or less intolerable, and the day would come when each man, doing what seems right in his own eyes, would also be doing what is in fact best for the community, because all will be guided by principles of pure reason.

thumb|right|William Godwin
'''William Godwin''' (Engels journalist, econoom, romanschrijver  en feministe boek Frankenstein.

Als zoon van een dissidente dominee werd Godwin, na een goede opleiding te hebben genoten, in 1778 zelf predikant in de buurt van Londen. Nadat hij zijn geloof was kwijtgeraakt kwam hij in 1783 naar Londen waar hij als schrijver probeerde de kost te verdienen. Na enkele onopgemerkte werken, werd hij plotseling beroemd met twee boeken: een sociaal-politieke verhandeling en een roman.
''Enquiry concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness'' (Onderzoek naar de politieke rechtvaardigheid en haar invloed op de Deugd en het geluk in het algemeen) verscheen in 1793. In dit werk inspireerde hij zich op de filosofie van de roman ''Things as They Are or The Adventures of Caleb Williams'', die het verhaal vertelt van een bediende die het duistere geheim van zijn aristocratische meester Falkland ontdekt, en door die kennis genoodzaakt is om te vluchten. Caleb Williams kan beschouwd worden als de eerste thriller.   

In 1797 huwde hij met Mary Wollstonecraft die zijn ideeën deelde. Toen ze stierf liet ze hem een dochter na, Mary, die later de vrouw van de dichter Percy Shelley zou worden. In de weken volgend na de dood van zijn vrouw werkte Godwin aan ''Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman''. Daarin beschreef hij het leven van de vrouw die hij verloren had, en vertelde openhartig over haar twee zelfmoordpogingen, haar relatie met Gilbert Imlay, en de buitenechtelijke dochter (Fanny Imlay) die ze bij hem had gekregen.