Quaker to Catholic : Mary Howitt, Lost Author of the 19th Century

Quaker to Catholic: Mary Howitt, Lost Author of the 19th Century, is a fascinating look inside the life of one of the most endearing figures of Nineteenth Century England. Best known for her classic children's poem, the Spider and the Fly, Mary Howitt was a close friend of such figures as Charles Dickens, William Wordsworth and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She introduced the English version of Hans Christian Anderson's tales by translating them from Danish. She and her dedicated husband, William, helped get many well-known authors of their day into print. A great champion of women's rights and abolition of the slave trade, she became friends and an associate of Hariett Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Uneasy with the practices of the Quakers in relation to clothing and rights of women, she finally converted to Catholicism before her death in 1888 at the age of 89.