Mary Botham Howitt (1799-1888) was an English poet, translator, and editor. Born Mary Botham on March 17, 1788 in Coleford, England to Quaker Samuel Botham and his wife Ann, Mary was educated at home, read widely, and began writing at an early age. She married the English writer William Howitt in 1821 and had four children, Anna Mary, Alfred William, Charlton, and Margaret. Together and separately, Mary and William Howitt published a large body of work in several different genres including poetry, natural history, travel, and "homes and haunts”. Among their shared works are The Forest Minstrels and other Poems (Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, 1823), Howitt’s Journal of Literature and Popular Progress (1847-1849), and The Ruined Abbeys and Castles of Great Britian (A. W. Bennett, 1862). They were also early contributors to Charles Dickens’ Household Words.

In 1829, Mary published the well-known poem The Spider and the Fly: An Apologue: A New Version of an Old Story which first appeared in The New Year's Gift and started writing popular children’s books. In the early 1840s, the Howitt family moved to Heidelberg, Germany where Mary learned Swedish and Danish and translated the novels of the Swedish feminist writer Fredrika Bremer (1801-1865), whom she introduced to English and American readers. She was also the first English speaker to translate several tales by Hans Christian Anderson (1805-1875). In addition to her literary work, Howitt was a strong supporter of the British anti-slavery movement and became acquainted with Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) during Stowes’ trip to England in 1853. Her liberal belief in equality extended to women’s rights and along with Mary Gaskill (1810-1865) and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), Mary raised a petition for the Married Women’s Property Act in 1870. The Howitts became interested in Spiritualism and in 1847, they formally resigned from the Society of Friends. After William’s death in 1879, Mary converted to Catholicism. Mary Howitt died in Rome in 1888.

William Howitt (1792-1879) was an English writer. He was born in Derbyshire, England on December 18, 1792 to Thomas and Phoebe Howitt. After attending the Friends school in Yorkshire, Howitt trained as a carpenter, worked on the family farm, and eventually became a pharmacist with his own business. William married the English poet Mary Botham in 1821, with whom he collaborated on over 180 books. The couple moved to Nottingham where he began his own writing career with Popular History of Priestcraft in All Ages and Nations, (Effingham Wilson, 1833). Howitt was elected as a Radical alderman in 1835; however, he resigned because he did not have enough time to write.

The Howitts moved to Esher in 1837 where they became involved in education reform and with the British anti-slavery movement. During this time, William published Visits to Remarkable Places (Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, 1840), in which he included a contribution by Elizabeth Gaskell titled "Clopton Hall". This helped launch Gaskell’s career. While in Germany, William immersed himself in the German language and culture and produced a series of books on German life. Back in England, he edited The People's Journal and Howitt's Journal. He also published Homes and Haunts of the most Eminent British Poets (Richard Bentley, 1847). Over the years, Howitt became a strong believer in Spiritualism and wrote The History of the Supernatural in all Ages and Nations, and in all Churches, Christian and Pagan, demonstrating a Universal Faith (J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1863), in which he included his own observations and experiences. From 1870 until his death, William Howitt and his family spent the summers in the Austrian Tyrol and the winters in Rome, where he died in 1879.