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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Module | Women's Studies |
| Title | Mary Howitt, an Autobiography [Volume 1] |
| Collection | Women's Autobiographies |
| Author | Howitt, Mary (née Botham) |
| Date | 1889 |
| Library | Cambridge University Library |
| Copyright | Material sourced from Cambridge University Library |
| Original Microfilm Part | Part 2: Rare printed autobiographies covering twenty-two womens lives, 1780-1889 |
| Original Microfilm Reel | 16 |
| Detailed Description | Born in Staffordshire, Mary Howitt (1799-1889) was the daughter of Samuel Botham, land surveyor, and Ann Wood. Her memoir describes her Quaker upbringing, marriage and motherhood, as well as her literary interests, social reform and her spiritual journey towards Catholicism, 1805-1884. Volume 1 includes being taught the Quaker religion by her parents; parents entrusting their children's general education to God; mother's withdrawing from her children, and author's studying with a governess; father insisting upon author and author's sister the teaching of poor children. Friendship and marriage with William Howitt, writer, social commentator and poet, 1821; working with husband on literary projects including Howitt's Journal of Literary and Popular Press. Author's interest in the ideas of Robert Owen, social reformer; support for the Reform Bill, 1832. Taking her children to Germany for a better education. Volume 2: discusses the editing of the Drawing-Room Scrap-Book journal. Learning Danish and translating works of Hans Christian Anderson, and her friendship with him. Her friendships with Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti and Tennyson. Her interest in American anti-slavery issues. Changing her negative views on Catholicism and her conversion. Although an early active campaigner for women's rights this is not discussed in her autobiography. Howitt's childhood autobiography, My Own Story, Autobiography of a Child (1856) describes English rural life in a pre-industrial world. |