Martineau, Harriet

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Epithet: writer and reformer

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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 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 to Tynemouth near Newcastle to be near her brother. She spent four years there during a period of ill-health but from the 1840s lived at Ambleside in the Lake District in a house she designed herself.

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. She suffered from ill-health for many years and was also profoundly deaf.

Reference: Women, Emancipation and Literature. The Papers of Harriet Martineau 1802-1876 from Birmingham University Library. A Listing and Guide to the Microfilm Collection (Adam Matthew Publications, 1991). ; Janet Todd (ed), Dictionary of British Women Writers (Routledge 1989). ; Dictionary of National Biography (Vol XII, London 1909).

From the guide to the Harriet Martineau Papers, 1816-1885, (University of Birmingham Information Services, Special Collections Department)