Editing Elizabeth Gaskell (section)

==Married life and writing career==
[[File:Elizabeth Gaskell.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth Gaskell: 1851 portrait by [[George Richmond (painter)|George Richmond]]]]
On 30 August 1832 Mrs. Gaskell married Unitarian minister [[William Gaskell]], in Knutsford. They spent their honeymoon in [[North Wales]], staying with her uncle, Samuel Holland, at Plas-yn-Penrhyn near [[Porthmadog]].<ref>"The prominent house Plas yn Penrhyn …. at the top of Penrhyn itself was the home of Samuel Holland ..." Gwynedd Archaeological Trust http://www.heneb.co.uk/hlc/ffestiniog/ffest27.html</ref> The Gaskells then settled in [[Manchester]], where William was the minister at [[Cross Street Unitarian Chapel]] and longest-serving chair of the [[The Portico Library|Portico Library]].  Manchester's industrial surroundings and books borrowed from the library influenced Elizabeth's writing in the [[industrial novel|industrial genre]]. Their first daughter was stillborn in 1833. Their other children were Marianne (1834), Margaret Emily, known as Meta (1837), Florence Elizabeth (1842), and Julia Bradford (1846). Marianne and Meta boarded at the private school conducted by [[Martineau family|Rachel Martineau]], sister of [[Harriet Martineau|Harriet]], a close friend of Elizabeth.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6iNXAAAAYAAJ&q=Manchester+ladies+educational+association+meta+gaskell|title=The Gaskell Society Journal, Volume 22|publisher=The Gaskell Society |year= 2008 |   page =57|access-date=25 April 2017|quote=Meta (Margaret Emily), the second daughter, was sent at about the same age as Marianne to Miss Rachel Martineau, ...}}</ref>  Florence married [[Charles Crompton]], a barrister and Liberal politician, in 1863.<ref name="Chronology"/>

In March 1835 Mrs. Gaskell began a diary documenting the development of her daughter Marianne: she explored parenthood, the values she placed on her role as a mother; her faith, and, later, relations between Marianne and her sister, Meta.  In 1836 she co-authored with her husband a cycle of poems, ''Sketches among the Poor'', which was published in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'' in January 1837. In 1840 [[William Howitt]] published ''Visits to Remarkable Places'' containing a contribution entitled ''Clopton Hall'' by "A Lady", the first work written and published solely by her.  In April 1840 Howitt published ''The Rural Life of England'', which included a second work titled ''Notes on Cheshire Customs''.<ref name="Chronology"/>

In July 1841, the Gaskells travelled to Belgium and Germany.  [[German literature]] came to have a strong influence on her short stories, the first of which she published in 1847 as ''Libbie Marsh's Three Eras'', in ''Howitt's Journal'', under the pseudonym "Cotton Mather Mills".  But other influences including [[Adam Smith]]'s ''Social Politics'' enabled a much wider understanding of the cultural milieu in which her works were set.  Her second story printed under the pseudonym was ''The Sexton's Hero''. And she made her last use of it in 1848, with the publication of her story ''Christmas Storms and Sunshine''.{{cn|date=September 2022}}

For some 20 years beginning in 1843, the Gaskells took holidays at [[Silverdale, Lancashire|Silverdale]] on [[Morecambe Bay]], and in particular stayed at [[Lindeth Tower]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Silverdale Tower - Elizabeth Gaskell's Lancashire inspiration |url=https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/people/silverdale-tower-elizabeth-gaskell-s-lancashire-inspiration-6930782 |access-date=27 September 2022 |work=Great British Life |date=13 June 2011 |language=en-UK}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=An Elizabeth Gaskell staycation |url=https://elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk/an-elizabeth-gaskell-staycation/ |website=elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk |access-date=27 September 2022 |language=en |date=5 August 2020}}</ref> Daughters Meta and Julia later built a house, "The Shieling", in Silverdale.<ref>{{cite news |title=The house of a forgotten writer |url=https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/6932747.the-house-of-a-forgotten-writer/ |access-date=27 September 2022 |work=The Westmorland Gazette |date=8 February 2002 |language=en}}</ref>

A son, William, (1844–45), died in infancy, and this tragedy was the catalyst for Gaskell's first novel, ''[[Mary Barton]]''. It was ready for publication in October 1848,<ref name="Chronology"/> shortly before they made the move south.  It was an enormous success, selling thousands of copies.  Ritchie called it a "great and remarkable sensation."  It was praised by [[Thomas Carlyle]] and [[Maria Edgeworth]].  She brought the teeming [[slum]]s of manufacturing in Manchester alive to readers as yet unacquainted with crowded narrow alleyways.  Her obvious depth of feeling was evident, while her turn of phrase and description was described as the greatest since [[Jane Austen]].<ref>Ritchie, p. xviii.</ref>

In 1850, the Gaskells moved to a villa at [[84 Plymouth Grove]].<ref name="Uglow">Uglow J. ''Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories'' (Faber and Faber; 1993) ({{ISBN|0-571-20359-0}})</ref> She took her cow with her. For exercise, she would happily walk three miles to help another person in distress.  In Manchester, Elizabeth wrote her remaining literary works, while her husband held welfare committees and tutored the poor in his study. The Gaskells' social circle included writers, journalists, religious dissenters, and social reformers such as William and [[Mary Howitt]] and [[Harriet Martineau]]. Poets, patrons of literature and writers such as  [[Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton|Lord Houghton]],  [[Charles Dickens]] and [[John Ruskin]] visited Plymouth Grove, as did the American writers [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] and [[Charles Eliot Norton]], while the conductor [[Charles Hallé]], who lived close by, taught piano to one of their daughters. Elizabeth's friend [[Charlotte Brontë]] stayed there three times, and on one occasion hid behind the drawing room curtains as she was too shy to meet the Gaskells' other visitors.<ref name="Independent">{{cite news|url=http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/features/article353793.ece |last=Nurden |first=Robert |title=An ending Dickens would have liked |date=26 March 2006 |location=London |work=The Independent |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930165339/http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/features/article353793.ece |archive-date=30 September 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Miss Meta Gaskell|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/1st-november-1913/24/miss-meta-gaskell|work=The Spectator |date=1 November 1913|access-date=25 April 2017|quote=LORD HOUGHTON once said that the conversation and society to be met within the house of the Gaskells at Manchester were the one thing which made life in that city tolerable for people of literary tastes. Miss Meta Gaskell, (daughter of Elizabeth Gaskell) who died last Sunday...}}</ref>

[[File:Gaskell House Plymouth Grove front.JPG|thumb|left|[[84 Plymouth Grove|Gaskell House]], Plymouth Grove, Manchester]]
In early 1850 Gaskell wrote to [[Charles Dickens]] asking for advice about assisting a girl named Pasley whom she had visited in prison. Pasley provided her with a model for the title character of ''[[Ruth (novel)|Ruth]]'' in 1853. ''Lizzie Leigh'' was published in March and April 1850, in the first numbers of Dickens's journal ''[[Household Words]]'', in which many of her works were to be published, including ''[[Cranford (novel)|Cranford]]'' and ''[[North and South (Gaskell novel)|North and South]]'', her novella ''[[My Lady Ludlow]]'', and short stories.{{cn|date=September 2022}}

In June 1855, [[Patrick Brontë]] asked Gaskell to write a biography of his daughter Charlotte, and consequently she published ''[[The Life of Charlotte Brontë| The Life of Charlotte Brontë]]'' in 1857, a significant development in Gaskell's literary career.<ref name="Chronology"/> Her choice to privilege Brontë's private life over her public literary career was unconventional and proved controversial.<ref>Stone, Donald D. ''The Romantic Impulse in Victorian Fiction''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980, p. 141.</ref> In 1859 Gaskell travelled to [[Whitby]] to gather material for ''[[Sylvia's Lovers]]'', which was published in 1863. Her novella ''Cousin Phyllis'' was serialized in ''[[The Cornhill Magazine]]'' from November 1863 to February 1864. The serialization of her last novel, ''Wives and Daughters'', began in August 1864 in ''The Cornhill''.<ref name="Chronology"/> She died of a heart attack in 1865, while visiting a house she had purchased in [[Holybourne]], Hampshire. ''Wives and Daughters'' was published in book form in early 1866, first in the United States and then, ten days later, in Britain.<ref name="Chronology"/>

Her grave is near the [[Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford]].{{cn|date=September 2022}}