Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Mary Howitt
-
Standard Name: Howitt, Mary
Birth Name: Mary Botham
Married Name: Mary Howitt
Pseudonym: Wilfreda
Between them, Mary Howitt
and her husband William
wrote and published over 180 books. Hers alone, at her death, occupied forty pages of the British Museum
printed catalogue.
Dunicliff, Joy. Mary Howitt: Another Lost Victorian Writer. Excalibur Press of London.
1, 261
Bearing the expenses of a large family, they needed to harness their literary productivity to earning potential.
Dunicliff, Joy. Mary Howitt: Another Lost Victorian Writer. Excalibur Press of London.
1, 134-5
As an opportunistic writer in several low-status, low-cost genres, accustomed to placing the same work in several successive venues, MH
left a complex, even confusing bibliography, not yet reduced to order by scholars.
She knew most of the literary women of her day, including Felicia Hemans
(who wrote to ask her for an autograph),
L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, editor. The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford as Recorded in Letters from Her Literary Correspondents. Hurst and Blackett.
Mitford, Mary Russell. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself in Letters To Her Friends. Editor L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, Harper and Brothers.
2: 213
Friends, Associates
Margaret Fuller
Her travels in England introduced her to Mary Howitt
and Thomas Carlyle
, and she visited her old acquaintance Harriet Martineau
. In Paris she had significant meetings with George Sand
and the Polish poet...
Friends, Associates
Ellen Wood
As she began to establish herself as a writer, EW
became a friend of her fellow authors Anna Maria Hall
, Julia Kavanagh
, and Mary Howitt
. The latter wrote her a complimentary letter...
Friends, Associates
Jessie White Mario
In old age JWM
was attentive to William Howitt
in his last illness. Margaret
, younger daughter of William and Mary Howitt
, duly visited her in return. Margaret gave her relations a vivid account...
Friends, Associates
Mary Cowden Clarke
In addition to meeting Dickens
as a result of her theatrical activities, MCC
and her husband met William Hazlitt
through a shared duty of theatre reviewing, and she became friends with Mary Howitt
, and...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Gaskell
EG
met Mary Howitt
in Heidelberg and attended many society balls with her. They shared much in common and became close friends.
Uglow, Jennifer S. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber and Faber.
Williams, Merryn. Margaret Oliphant: A Critical Biography. St Martin’s Press.
19
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Gaskell
One happy result of this expansion of her sphere was the cementing of her friendship with Mary
and William Howitt
.
Uglow, Jennifer S. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber and Faber.
219
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Gaskell
She also liked to escape from Manchester when she was able to. She spent the evening of Christmas 1850 at William
and Mary Howitt
's home in London swapping ghost stories with them and Eliza Meteyard
.
Mitchell, Sally. The Fallen Angel: Chastity, Class and Women’s Reading 1835-1880. Bowling Green State University Popular Press.
32
Friends, Associates
Grace Aguilar
Around this time her acquaintance deepened with Camilla Crosland
.
Crosland, Camilla. Landmarks of a Literary Life, 1820-1892. Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Lightbown, Ronald W., and Eliza Meteyard. “Introduction”. The Life of Josiah Wedgwood, Cornmarket Press.
The difficulties of social life for unattached women are visible in her regret and anxiety over...
Friends, Associates
Camilla Crosland
CC
's friends and acquaintances were varying and numerous. In her youth the radical politician John Cartwright
was a neighbour. Her literary work as an adult led to the formation of a number of lasting...
Friends, Associates
Maria Jane Jewsbury
Although they had been corresponding by letter for some time, this holiday was the first time the two writers met in person. MJJ
was soon accepted into Hemans
' social circle and become friends with...
Friends, Associates
Hans Christian Andersen
HCA
dedicated his book A Poet's Day Dreams to Charles Dickens
, whom he visited in 1857. He also, while visiting England, stayed with William
and Mary Howitt
at The Elms, Lower Clapton. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Howitt, William, and Mary Howitt. The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe. Colburn, 1852.
Bremer, Fredrika. The Neighbours. Translator Howitt, Mary, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1842.
Bremer, Fredrika. The President’s Daughters. Translator Howitt, Mary, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1843.
Howitt, Mary. The Seven Temptations. R. Bentley, 1834.