Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) was an English writer and philosopher, renowned in her day as a controversial journalist, political economist, abolitionist and life-long feminist. 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. She had to earn her living, and, being precluded by deafness from teaching, took up authorship in earnest. Besides reviewing for the Repository she wrote stories (afterwards collected as Traditions of Palestine), gained in one year (1830) three essay-prizes of the Unitarian Association, and eked out her income by needlework. In 1831 she was seeking a publisher for a series of tales designed as Illustrations of Political Economy. Her other works include Principle and Practice (1827), My Servant Rachel (1838), How to Observe (1838), Deerbrook (1839), The Settlers at Home (1841), The Martyr Age of the United States (1839), The Peasant and the Prince (1841), Feats on the Fiord (1841), The Crofton Boys (1841) and The Billow and the Rock (1846).
