Elliott Maud Howe

   Maud Howe Elliott was an American writer, most notable for her Pulitzer prize-winning collaboration with her sister, Laura E. Richards, on their mother's biography The Life of Julia Ward Howe (1916). Her other works included A Newport Aquarelle (1883); Phillida (1891); Mammon, later published as Honor: A Novel (1893); Roma Beata, Letters from the Eternal City (1903); The Eleventh Hour in the Life of Julia Ward Howe(1911); Three Generations (1923); John Elliott, The Story of an Artist (1930); My Cousin, F. Marion Crawford (1934); and This Was My Newport(1944).

 

   Elliott was born at the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, which was founded by her father, who was also its first director. Her father was Samuel Gridley Howe, a nineteenth century United States physician, abolitionist, and an advocate of education for the blind, and her mother was Julia Ward Howe, a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, poet, and the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. She married English artist John Elliott in 1887. After her marriage, she lived in Chicago (1892–93) and Italy (1894-1900/1906-1910), before moving to Newport where she spent the rest of her life. She was a patron of the arts, was a founding member of the Newport Art Association, and served as its secretary from 1912-1942. Howe was also a founder of the Progressive Party and took part in the suffrage movement.