Harriet Taylor Mill

Harriet Taylor Mill (née Hardy; 8 October 1807 – 3 November 1858) was a British philosopher and women's rights advocate. Her extant corpus of writing can be found in The Complete Works of Harriet Taylor Mill. Several pieces can also be found in The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, especially volume XXI. Early life and first marriage Harriet Hardy was born in 1807 in Walworth, south London, to parents Harriet and Thomas Hardy, a surgeon. Harriet was educated at home and expressed an early interest in writing poetry as well as radical and "free thinking" ideas, leading to her association with the congregation of Unitarian "free thinker" Rev. William Fox. She married her first husband, John Taylor, in 1826 at the age of 18. Together, they had three children: Herbert, Algernon, and Helen Taylor. In 1831, Harriet met John Stuart Mill. How they met is the subject of some speculation, but some suggest it was planned by the leader of Harriet's Unitarian Congregation. John Taylor invited Mill to dinner because of his wife's mutual interest in women's rights. Taylor was already not only writing poetry, but was interested in social reform, and had written a lengthy Life of William Caxton (which is more of a comprehensive history of the printed and written word) for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Around the time she met Mill, she was, or began, also writing a series of unpublished pieces on women's rights, ethics, toleration and marriage. Her friendship with Mill quickly blossomed. Taylor was attracted to Mill, who treated her as an intellectual equal. Around eighteen months later, something made Taylor break off their friendship, causing Mill to write her a passionate love letter in French (the only piece of correspondence surviving from either for this period of their relationship) in which he refuses to accept her 'eternal adieu', and, although saying 'her wish is his command', insists 'her path and mine are separated, she says; but they can, they must, meet again'. Evidently, she agreed, for they were soon closer than ever, exchanging a pair of lengthy essays, On Marriage, in 1833.