Anna Mary Howitt was connected on the one hand with the social and publishing circles of her parents, the hard-working pillars of the London literary establishment, and on the other hand with a group of forward-looking, feminist women of her own age. She was most productive, both as writer and painter, during the 1850s. Her pictures included delicate landscapes and ambitious history paintings. Her written output runs the gamut through journalism, translation, letters, poetry, a travel book, children's stories, and memoirs.