Author: Howitt, Richard
Biography:
HOWITT, Richard (1799-1870: ODNB)
He was born on 23 Feb. 1799 at Heanor, Derbyshire, to Quaker parents, Phoebe (Tantum) and Thomas Howitt. He ran an apothecary shop in Nottingham for some years, at first in partnership with his brother William Howitt (q.v.) and then by himself. His first collection of poetry, the Antediluvian Sketches of 1830, which includes some pieces reprinted from magazines and annuals, is dated from Nottingham with a dedicatory poem to Thomas Pringle (q.v.). In 1839 he left England with another brother, Godfrey (1800-73), and spent four years farming in Australia. A second collection of poems, The Gipsy King (1840), was published in London during his absence; after his return in 1844 (Godfrey stayed on) he published Impressions of Australia Felix (1845), including some “Australian poems.” Howell retired to Edingley, Nottinghamshire, and produced one more collection, Wasp’s Honey, in 1868. He died unmarried at Edingley on 5 Feb. 1869 and was buried in the Quaker burial-ground at Mansfield, Notts. (ODNB 15 Dec. 2022; ADB 15 Dec. 2022) HJ