William Howitt 406066 208569963 2008-04-27T18:10:36Z 87.114.24.45 {{Infobox Person | name = William Howitt | image = William Howitt BritishLibraryuk C3031-02.jpg | image_size = | caption = picture from BritishLibrary.co.uk | birth_date = [[18 December]] [[1792]]<ref name=dnb>[[Dictionary of National Biography]] now in the public domain</ref> | birth_place = [[Heanor]] in [[Derbyshire]]<ref name=dnb>[[Dictionary of National Biography]] now in the public domain</ref> | death_date = [[3 March]] [[1879]] | death_place = [[Rome]] | education = [[Ackworth School|Friends public school]] at [[Ackworth, West Yorkshire|Ackworth]] | occupation = Writer | spouse = [[Mary Howitt|Mary Botham]] | parents = | children = }} '''William Howitt''' ([[18 December]] [[1792]] &ndash; [[3 March]] [[1879]]), was an [[England|English]] [[author]]. He was born at [[Heanor]], [[Derbyshire]]. His parents were [[Religious Society of Friends|Quakers]], and he was educated at the [[Ackworth School|Friends public school]] at [[Ackworth, West Yorkshire|Ackworth]], Yorkshire. His younger brothers were [[Richard Howitt|Richard]] and [[Godfrey Howitt|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 Howitt|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 [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]]s and the office of [[alderman]] in [[Nottingham, England|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 Squatter's Home'' (1857). 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 (religious movement)|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 [[Merano|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 [[30 January]] [[1888]].<ref name=dnb/> 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.<ref name=dnb/> William Howitt wrote some fifty books, and his wife's publications, inclusive of translations, number over a hundred. ==References== <References/> This entry contains information from the Meran Stadarchiv and an on the spot visit to the house in Meran, which has a plaque with her initials MAH and the date 1880. {{DEFAULTSORT:Howitt, William}} [[Category:People from Derbyshire]] [[Category:English poets]] [[Category:English nature writers]] [[Category:English historians|Howitt, William]] [[Category:English architecture writers|Howitt, William]] [[Category:English Quakers|Howitt, William]] [[Category:Councillors in the East Midlands|Howitt, William]] [[Category:Ackworth Old Scholars|Howitt, William]] [[Category:1792 births]] [[Category:1879 deaths]] [[de:William Howitt]] ---- {{1911}}