Authors starting with H

- Mary Howitt (March 12, 1799 - January 30, 1888) -

Ancestry: Coleford, in Gloucestershire, South West England

Mary Howitt was an English poet, and author of the famous poem The Spider and the Fly. She was born Mary Botham at Coleford, in Gloucestershire, the temporary residence of her parents, while her father, Samuel Botham, a prosperous Quaker of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, was looking after some mining property. Samuel had married his wife Ann in South Wales in 1796 when he was 38 and she was 32. They had four children Anna, Mary, Emma and Charles. Their Queen Anne house is now known as Howitt Place.

Mary Botham was educated at home, and read widely; she commenced writing verses at a very early age. Together with her husband she wrote over 180 books.

Mary Howitt's poem the "Spider and the Fly" was originally published in 1829. When Lewis Carroll was readying Alice's Adventures Under Ground for publication, he replaced a parody he had made of a negro minstrel song with a parody of Mary's poem. The Lobster Quadrille, which is an important part of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, is a parody of Mary's poem concerning a spider and a fly.

The poem was a Caldecott Honor Book in October 2007.