Martineau, Harriet, 1802-1876

Harriet Martineau, English novelist, economist, and social reformer.

English author and traveler.

Harriet Martineau, journalist and author, best known for Society in America (1837).

Author and economist.

English author, political journalist, and feminist, Harriet Martineau visited the United States (1834-1839) and became associated with the anti-slavery cause.

Harriet Martineau was an English author, activist, and public figure. She wrote on topics including education, the antislavery movement, women's rights, political economy, religion, farming, and foreign policy, as well as novels, travel books, and children's stories.

English writer and journalist. A lifelong abolitionist, she served as English correspondent for the American Anti-Slavery Standard. She also wrote about the United States, having traveled there between 1834 and 1836.

British writer.

Harriet Martineau was an author, journalist, social commentator, and leading feminist intellectual in the second half of the nineteenth century. She was most noted for her economic, social, and political contributions to the theories of her day, particularly on political economy, positivist philosophy, agnosticism, radical causes, emancipation and the abolition of slavery, equal rights for women, and better working conditions for domestic, agricultural, and factory laborers.

English author.

Born to manufacturing family in Norwich, England, Martineau was a versatile writer with a wide range of interests. A philosopher and economist, she was at the heart of the Victorian literary and social life.

Harriet Martineau was an eclectic and somewhat controversial English author, activist, and public figure, noted for the clarity of her wide-ranging mind. She wrote on an array of topics, including education, the antislavery movement, women's rights, political economy, religion, farming, and foreign policy, as well as novels, travel books, and children's stories. The respect she was accorded for her intelligence and ability was always tempered by Victorian views on gender roles. She continues to hold an ambiguous, almost contradictory, position in Victorian society.

Biographical Chronology

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) was a political economist, author, journalist, social commentator and leading feminist intellectual. She published widely and her publications included popular works on economics, several novels, and various children's stories. She was also a regular contributor to and editorial writer for the 'Daily News' and 'Edinburgh Review'.

She was born in Norwich in 1802, the fifth child of Thomas Martineau and Elizabeth Rankin Martineau. She began her literary career at a young age and her first her first article on 'Female Writers on Practical Divinity' appeared in the Unitarian periodical, 'The Monthly Repository' in 1821. Her first major successful work was 'Illustrations of Political Economy' (1832-34), which was quickly followed by 'Poor Law and Paupers Illustrated' (1833), and 'Illustrations of Taxation' (1834). She visited America between 1834 and 1836 and on her return wrote 'Society in America' (1837) and 'Retrospect of Western Travel' (1838). She continued to travel, visiting Italy, Egypt and Palestine, after which she published 'Eastern Life' (1848). Later publications included 'History of England during the Thirty Years' Peace' (1849) and a translation of Comte's 'Philosophie Positive' (1853). She lived initially in London then moved for a short time to Tynemouth near Newcastle to be near her brother but from the 1840s lived at Ambleside in the Lake District.

Harriet Martineau was an exceptional correspondent throughout her life and exchanged letters not just with publishers but also with political, literary and other prominent individuals of the time. She suffered from ill health for many years and also had impaired hearing. During her later life she was cared for by her nieces, most notably Maria Martineau.