Gaskell

Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Stevenson was born in London on 29 September 1810, the daughter of a Unitarian minister. In 1832, she married William Gaskell, also a Unitarian minister, and they settled in the industrial city of Manchester.

Following the death of her son, she was encouraged by her husband to begin writing and completed her first novel, 'Mary Barton', which was published anonymously in 1848. It was an immediate success, winning the praise of Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle. Dickens asked her to contribute to his magazine, 'Household Words', where her next major work, 'Cranford', was serialised in 1853. Gaskell's work brought her many friends, including the novelist Charlotte Brontë.

Gaskell had many and varied personal connections, some of which were the most famous figures of the day, whilst others were the poorest factory workers in her home town of Manchester. Her friends and social networks influenced her writing and the worlds she depicted in her books.

As an acquaintance of the Nightingale family, she was invited to the tranquility of Lea Hurst while writing ‘North and South’. As she got to know Florence - her thoughts and ambitions at the time - her ‘story’ entranced Gaskell. It is thought that the fate of heroine Margaret Hale in ‘North and South’ was inspired by Gaskell’s coversations with Florence. 'North and South' was published in 1854.

When Charlotte Bronte died in 1855, her father, Patrick Brontë, asked Gaskell to write her biography. The 'Life of Charlotte Brontë' was published two years later in 1857.

Gaskell died on 12 November 1865, leaving her longest work, 'Wives and Daughters' incomplete.

2010 is a year to celebrate the lives of both Elizabeth Gaskell and Florence Nightingale, with the bicentanary of Gaskell’s birth and centenary of Nightingale’s death.