Mary Howitt's An Autobiography (1889)

Mary Howitt's An Autobiography (1889)

Howitt, Mary, 1799-1888

Journalists/Writers

Cook, Eliza, 1818-1889

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876

Relationships-- Intimate--Same-sex

The autobiography was edited by Howitt's daughter. It briefly mentions Cushman, "her intimate friend, Eliza Cook," and their style of dressing in "a very masculine style"

Howitt, Mary, 1799-1888

W. Isbister, ltd.

1889

Reference

"All Friends, however, were not so severe as my excellent mother in their condemnation of actresses, for Charlotte Cushman met with just appreciation from the son of the plain ministering-Friend, William Forster, of Tottenham. This was the celebrated William Edward Forster, who had not yet been disowned for marrying out of the Society, or taken any prominent part in the government of his country, being chiefly known as a staunch Liberal and joint-proprietor with Mr. Fison in the Greenholme worsted-mills, near Burley, in Wharfedale. On one occasion, when Charlotte Cushman, with her intimate friend, Eliza Cook, was staying at Mr. Forster's Yorkshire residence, she received from him an entire piece of alpaca of his manufacture, and of a new dark colour called steel-blue. It was worn by both ladies with no little pride. Miss Cook, who dressed in a very masculine style, which was considered strange at that time, with short hair parted on one side, and a tight-fitting, lapelled bodice, showing a shirt-front and ruffle, looked well in her dark, steel-blue alpaca; and Miss Cushman, who possessed a strongly-built, heroic figure, not the less so."

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