William Howitt (
December 18, 1792 –
March 3, 1879), was an
English author.
He was born at
Heanor, Derbyshire. His parents were
Quakers, and he was educated at the Friends public school at
Ackworth, Yorkshire. His younger brothers were
Richard and
Godrey who he helped tutor. In 1814 he published a
poem on the
Influence of Nature and Poetry on National Spirit. He married, in
1821, Mary Botham, who like himself was a Quaker and a
poet. William and Mary Howitt collaborated throughout a long literary career, the first of their joint productions being
The Forest Minstrels and other Poems (1821).
In
1831, William Howitt produced a work resulting naturally from his habits of observation and his genuine love of nature. It was a history of the changes in the face of the outside world in the different months of the year, and was entitled
The Book of the Seasons, or the Calendar of Nature (1831). His
Popular History of Priestcraft (1833) won him the favour of active
Liberals and the office of
alderman in
Nottingham, where the Howitts had made their home.
They moved in
1837 to
Esher, and became friends with
Elizabeth Gaskell and her husband. In 1840 they went to
Heidelberg, primarily for the education of their children, remaining in Germany for two years. In
1841 William Howitt produced, under the pseudonym of Dr Cornelius,
The Student Life of Germany, the first of a series of works on German social life and institutions. Mary Howitt devoted herself to
Scandinavian literature, and between
1842 and
1863 she translated the novels of
Frederika Bremer and many of the stories of
Hans Christian Andersen. With her husband she wrote in 1852
The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe. In June of that year William Howitt, with two of his sons, set sail for
Australia, where he spent two years in the goldfields. The results of his travels appeared in
A Boy's Adventures in the Wilds of Australia (1854),
Land, Labor and Gold; or, Two Years in Victoria (1855) and
Tallangetta, the Squaller's Home (1837).
On his return to England Howitt had settled at
Highgate and resumed his indefatigable book-making. From 1856 to 1862 he was engaged on Cassell's
Illustrated History of England, and from 1861 to 1864 he and his wife worked at the
Ruined Abbeys and Castles of Great Britain. The Howitts had left the
Society of Friends in 1847, and became interested in
spiritualism. In
1863 appeared
The History of the Super-natural in all Ages and Nations, and in all Churches, Christian and Pagan, demonstrating a Universal Faith, by William Howitt. He added his own conclusions from a practical examination of the higher phenomena through a course of seven years.
From
1870 onwards Howitt spent the summers in
Tyrol and the winters in
Rome, where he died. In 1880 Mary Howitt had a house built for her (which is still standing) in the spa town of
Meran in South Tyrol (then part of Austria) and from then on divided her time between Rome and Meran.
Mary Howitt was much affected by William's death, and in 1882 she joined the
Roman Catholic Church, towards which she had been gradually moving during her connection with spiritualism. She died at Rome on
January 30, 1888.
The Howitts are remembered for their untiring efforts to provide wholesome and instructive literature. Their son,
Alfred William Howitt, made himself a name by his explorations in Australia. Anna Mary Howitt married Alaric Alfred Watts, and was the author of
Pioneers of the Spiritual Reformation (1883). Mary Howitt's autobiography was edited by her daughter, Margaret Howitt, in 1889. William Howitt wrote some fifty books, and his wife's publications, inclusive of translations, number over a hundred.
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