High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Maurice, or the Fisher`s Cot is a children`s story by the Romantic writer Mary Shelley. Written in 1820 for Laurette Tighe, a daughter of friends of Percy and Mary Shelley, Mary Shelley tried to have it published by her father, William Godwin, but he refused. The text was lost until 1997, when a manuscript copy was rediscovered in Italy, exciting both the scholarly community and the general public.