H R Haweis

Mary Eliza Haweis, née Joy (1848-1898), was the daughter of the painter Thomas Musgrave Joy, and an artist in her own right, who first won fame with her exhibition at the Royal Academy under her maiden name Miss M. E. Joy. Her literary career started after she married Hugh Reginald Haweis, and after illustrating his books, started writing her own using the name Mrs. H. R. Haweis. Chaucer for Children was her very first book, and catapulted her to instant fame. She followed this up with several...See more

Mary Eliza Haweis, née Joy (1848-1898), was the daughter of the painter Thomas Musgrave Joy, and an artist in her own right, who first won fame with her exhibition at the Royal Academy under her maiden name Miss M. E. Joy. Her literary career started after she married Hugh Reginald Haweis, and after illustrating his books, started writing her own using the name Mrs. H. R. Haweis. Chaucer for Children was her very first book, and catapulted her to instant fame. She followed this up with several other works centered around art, fashion, history, and literature, including The Art of Beauty (1878), The Art of Dress (1879), The Art of Decoration (1881), and The Art of Housekeeping (1889). From 1880 she wrote essays on artistic houses, first published in the magazine The Queen. Apart from her literary work, she is also remembered for her successful campaign to have museums opened on Sundays-revolutionary at the time, but now standard practice around the globe. See less