Mary Howitt
Mary Howitt was an influential English poet and author born on March 12, 1799, in Gloucestershire. Raised in a Quaker family in Staffordshire, her early education took place in Quaker schools where she developed a passion for literature, particularly the works of Lord Byron. In 1821, she married chemist William Howitt, and together they embarked on a successful collaborative writing career, beginning with their publication of "The Forest Minstrel, and Other Poems" in 1823.
Howitt is notable for her contributions to children's literature, with her 1834 work "Sketches of Natural History" featuring the famous poem "The Spider and the Fly." Throughout her life, she engaged with prominent literary figures and produced didactic tales aimed at moral education for youth. Her dedication to social issues led her to co-create "Howitt's Journal of Literature and Popular Progress," which aimed to educate and entertain the working class.
Mary Howitt's literary legacy includes numerous translations and contributions to periodicals, as well as her autobiography written for children. After retiring to Italy, she converted to Catholicism before her death from bronchitis on January 30, 1888. Her work remains celebrated for its educational focus and moral storytelling, particularly in the realm of children's literature.
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Mary Howitt
Writer
- Born: March 12, 1799
- Birthplace: Coleford, Gloucestershire, England
- Died: January 30, 1888
- Place of death: Rome, Italy
Biography
Born in Gloucestershire, England, on March 12, 1799, Mary Howitt grew up in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. Her parents were Samuel and Ann Wood Botham, both Quakers. She had an older sister, Ann. She attended Quaker schools in Croyden and Sheffield and enjoyed reading the poet Byron. In 1821, she married William Howitt, a chemist, and shortly after settled in Nottingham. They began a long collaborative publishing career with their first volume, The Forest Minstrel, and Other Poems, published in 1823. They had seven children, though only four survived childhood.
One of Howitt’s first individual efforts was Sketches of Natural History, published in 1834. A collection of poems originally written for her own children, the volume included one of her most famous poems, “The Spider and the Fly: An Apologue—A New Version of an Old Story.” In 1836, her husband gave up his chemist shop, and they moved to Esher, in Surrey, and dedicated themselves to writing. They socialized in literary circles with Lord Alfred Tennyson, Charles Dickens, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Howitt wrote a series of didactic tales for children, “Tales for the People and their Children,” which were published by Thomas Tegg. Tegg also published her autobiography, My Own Story: Or, The Autobiography of a Child, which was written for children, in 1945. Between 1845 and 1847, she translated four tales by Hans Christian Anderson. Concerned with poverty, she and her husband produced Howitt’s Journal of Literature and Popular Progress, a periodical for the education and entertainment of the working class, from January, 1847, through June, 1848. In 1850, she began contributing to Dickens’s Household Words.
The Howitts retired to Italy in 1870, dividing their time between Rome and Tyrol. Her husband died in 1879. In 1882, she converted to Catholicism. She died from bronchitis on January 30, 1888. The author of a prodigious number of publications, Mary Howitt is best known for her entertaining writing for the moral education of children.