Harriet Martineau, 19th century British writer and journalist, was born in 1802 in Norwich, England to parents Thomas and Elizabeth Martineau. A prolific writer, Martinaeu wrote several books, both fiction and non-fiction, on the topics of economics, religion, the role of women in society, and invalidism. Her best-known works are Illustrations of Political Economy (1832–34), Society in America (1837), Retrospect of Western Travel (1838), Deerbrook (1839), Eastern Life Present and Past (1848), and Autobiography (1877). She also regularly published articles in the Unitarian journal Monthly Review and the Daily News. Martineau befriended many prominent intellectuals while living in London, England as well as transcendentalists and abolitionists whom she met while travelling to Boston, Massachusetts in the mid-1830s. She reflected these relationships and philosophies in her writings, especially taking up the anti-slavery cause. During her travels to Boston, Martineau met American Unitarian minister and writer William Ware, with whom she later struck up a correspondence, and visited with in both the United States and England. Martineau died in 1876 at her house, “The Knoll,” in Ambleside, England.

William Ware was a 19th century American Unitarian minister and writer. He was born in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1797 to Mary Clark and Henry Ware, Sr. Ware graduated from Harvard University in 1816 and then studied divinity with his father. In 1821 he became the only Universalist minister in New York City, New York and remained in that role until 1836, when he resigned his post. Ware returned to the Boston, Massachusetts area and took up writing, while also occasionally preaching at area churches. He purchased the Christian Examiner in 1838 and served as the editor until 1844. Ware authored three novels: Letters from Palmyra (1837) (later known as Zenobia); Probus (1838); and Julian (1841), and one work of non-fiction: The Antiquity and Revival of Unitarian Christianity (1831). Ware died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1852.