Author

William Howitt(1792–1879)

William Howitt is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, and published essays (1843–1847). 2 distinct works are named, most often in Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “analyzed”.

Engagement: AnalyzedReadMentioned
Present in: Letters · Books · Essays
Documented: 1843–1847

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

Confirmed reading

Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had William Howitt’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.

Dated
1843The Rural and Domestic Life of GermanyAttested
“I have read a shallow book Howitt's Germany, shallow, but with items not to be found elsewhere.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · gth May. [1843]
Explicit 'I have read a shallow book Howitt's Germany'.

In Fuller’s words

“A pleasing expression, in its kind, is afforded by the union in the names of the Howitts. William and Mary Howitt we heard named together for years, supposing them to be brother and sister; the equality of labors and reputation, even so, was auspicious”

Woman in the Nineteenth Century · 1845

When Fuller engaged with William Howitt

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist1record

V. New York3records

VI. Europe2records

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.

Howitt in Fuller’s reading world

Documentary evidence

Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.

1843—

Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson

p124

analyzed · read

“I have read a shallow book Howitt's Germany, shallow, but with items not to be found elsewhere.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. III. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.

Fuller names "Howitt's Germany" explicitly and reports having just finished it ("I have read"), with a critical but acknowledging verdict: "shallow, but with items not to be found elsewhere." Hudspeth identified the full title as William Howitt's The Rural and Domestic Life of Germany, a travel account by an English Quaker journalist who lived in Heidelberg.

1845—

Woman in the Nineteenth Century

p67

analyzed

“A pleasing expression, in its kind, is afforded by the union in the names of the Howitts.”

Fuller, Margaret. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1845.

Inferred Named by Fuller alongside the other Howitt as an example of literary partnership between husband and wife. No specific work is cited or inferred in this passage.

1845—

Books of Travel.

“Books of Travel.”

mentioned

“or intelligent gossip about the same like those of William Howitt.—These are not without their use in showing better lookers than they where to look for many things”

Fuller, Margaret. "Books of Travel." New-York Daily Tribune, 18 December 1845. · 18 December 1845

1845—

Miss Barrett’s Poems.

“Miss Barrett’s Poems.”

mentioned

“Howitt's ballad-dew, or Tennyson's god-vocal reverie”

Also reprinted in Papers on Literature and Art. Counted once, at its first appearance.

Fuller, Margaret. "Miss Barrett’s Poems." New-York Daily Tribune, 4 January 1845. · 4 January 1845

1846—

The Liberty Bell for 1846.

“The Liberty Bell for 1846.”

mentioned

“Among the latter are both the Howitts, Bowring and Miss Martineau. The print and paper of the volume are beautiful.”

Fuller, Margaret. "The Liberty Bell for 1846." New-York Daily Tribune, 9 January 1846. · 9 January 1846

1847—

Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . VIII.

“Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . VIII.”

mentioned

“Mary and William Howitt are its main support. I saw them several times at their cheerful and elegant home.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . VIII." New-York Daily Tribune, 2 February 1847. · 2 February 1847

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Miss Barrett's Poems

“Miss Barrett's Poems”

mentioned

“Or at times a modern volume — Wordsworth's solemn-thoughted idyl, Ilowitt's ballad-dew, or Tennyson's god-vocal reverie,”

Fuller, Margaret. Art, Literature, and the Drama. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. New York: The Tribune Association, 1869. · p209