MARTINEAU, HARRIET (1802-1876), English writer, was born at Norwich, where her father was a manufacturer, on June 12, 1802. The family was of Huguenot extraction (see MAR TINEAU, JAMES) and professed Unitarian views. The atmosphere of her home was industrious, intellectual and austere; she herself was clever, but weakly and unhappy; she had no sense of taste or smell, and moreover early grew deaf. At fifteen she was sent on a prolonged visit to her aunt, Mrs. Kentish, who kept a school at Bristol. Here her life became happier. In 1821 she began to write anonymously for the Monthly Repository, a Unitarian periodical, and in 1823 she published Devotional Exercises and Addresses, Prayers and Hymns.
In 1826 her father died, leaving a bare maintenance to his wife and daughters. Harriet's eldest brother and her lover both died about the same time. Then the Martineaus lost all their money.
Harriet began to write for her living. She met with moderate success only until she found (1831) a publisher for the series of tales known as Illustrations of Political Economy. In 1832 she moved to London, where she numbered among her acquaintance Hallam, Milman, Malthus, Monckton Milnes, Sydney Smith, Bulwer, and later Carlyle. In 1834 Harriet Martineau paid a long visit to America. Her open adhesion to the Abolitionist party, then small and very unpopular, gave great offence, which was deepened by the publication, soon after her return, of Society in A',nerica (1837) and a Retrospect of Western Travel (1838). An article in the Westminster Review, "The Martyr Age of the United States," introduced English readers to the struggles of the Abolitionists.
In 1839, during a visit to the Continent, Miss Martineau's health broke down. She retired to solitary lodgings in Tynemouth, and remained an invalid until 1844. Besides a novel, The Hour and the Man (1840), Life in the Sickroom. (1844), and the Play fellow (1841), she published a series of tales for children con taining some of her most popular work : Settlers at Home, The Peasant and the Prince, Feats on the Fiord, etc. During this ill
ness she for a second time declined a pension on the civil list, fearing to compromise her political independence. Her letter on the subject was published, and some of her friends raised a small annuity for her soon after. She removed to Ambleside, where she built herself "The Knoll," the house in which the greater part of her after life was spent. In 1845 she published three volumes of Forest and Game Law Tales. In 1846 she made a tour with some friends in Egypt, Palestine and Syria, and on her return published Eastern Life, Present and Past (1848). This work showed that as humanity passed through one after another of the world's historic religions, the conception of the Deity and of Divine government became at each step more and more abstract and indefinite. The ultimate goal Harriet Martineau believed to be philosophic atheism, but this belief she did not expressly declare.
In 1851 Miss Martineau alienated many of her friends by the publication of Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Develop ment. She contributed regularly from 1852 to 1866 to the Daily News. In the early part of 1855 Miss Martineau found herself suffering from heart disease. She now began to write her auto biography, but her life, which she supposed to be so near its close, was prolonged for twenty years. She died at "The Knoll" on June 27, 1876. She cultivated her tiny farm with success, and her poorer neighbours owed much to her. The verdict which the records on herself in the autobiographical sketch left to be pub lished by the Daily News has been endorsed by posterity.