Editing William Howitt (section)

==Biography==
Howitt was born in [[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 (poet)|Richard]] and [[Godfrey Howitt|Godfrey]] whom he helped tutor. In 1814, he published a poem on the ''Influence of Nature and Poetry on National Spirit''. In 1821, he married [[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 was ''The Forest Minstrels and other Poems'' (1821).

In 1831, William Howitt produced a work that naturally resulted 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 to [[Esher]] in 1837 and became friends with [[Elizabeth Gaskell]] and her husband. In 1838, the publication of his ''Colonization and Christianity'', which was later quoted approvingly by [[Karl Marx]] in ''[[Capital, Volume I]],''<ref>The passage, which is used in [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm chapter 31] of ''Volume I'', is from [https://archive.org/stream/colonizationchri00howirich#page/8/mode/2up p.&nbsp;9] of ''Colonization and Christianity'': "The barbarities and desperate outrages of the so-called Christian race, throughout every region of the world, and upon every people they have been able to subdue, are not to be paralleled by those of any other race, however fierce, however untaught, and however reckless of mercy and of shame, in any age of the earth."</ref> marked a significant moment. In 1840, they went to [[Heidelberg]], primarily for the education of their children, and remained in Germany for two years. In 1841, William Howitt, using the pseudonym Dr Cornelius, produced ''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]].

In 1847 Howitt published the 'Homes and Haunts of the most Eminent British Poets' with the publisher Richard Bently. The Preface to the Second Edition dated 1847, and referring to careful revision of the work is included in the third edition, published by George Routledge & Sons in 1877, suggesting there were either two editions in 1847, or the first edition was earlier. With her husband Mary wrote, in 1852, ''The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe''. 

In September 1852 William Howitt, with two of his sons, arrived in Melbourne Australia where he visited his younget brother and visited the newly discovered goldfields. The results of two years in the colony were ''A Boy's Adventures in the Wilds of Australia'' (1854), ''Land, Labour and Gold; or, Two Years in Victoria'' (1855) and ''Tallangetta, the Squatter's Home'' (1857). His eldest son [[Alfred William Howitt]] remained in Australia as an anthropologist, explorer and naturalist. He was known for leading the [[Victorian Relief Expedition]], which set out to establish the fate of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition.<ref>Portraits of Men of Eminence in Literature, Science, and Art, with Biographical Memoirs, by Ernest Edwards, B.A. ; Ed. by Lovell Reeve, Lovell Reeve & Co., 1863</ref> 

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 he published ''The History of the Supernatural in all Ages and Nations, and in all Churches, Christian and Pagan, demonstrating a Universal Faith''. 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 [[County of Tyrol|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 30 January 1888.<ref name=dnb/>

The Howitts are remembered for their untiring efforts to provide wholesome and instructive literature. [[Anna Mary Howitt]] was both an artist and a poet, and married [[Alaric Alfred Watts]].<ref>Anna Mary Howitt's ODNB entry: [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/63040 Retrieved 9 July 2011. Subscription required.]</ref> 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.