Hannah More Biography

Dromo's Den

MORE, Hannah (1745-1833). An English author, born at Stapleton, near Bristol, Feb. 2, 1745. She was well educated, scribbled essays and verse as a girl, and wrote a pastoral drama (1762). She became acquainted with Garrick, Burke, Reynolds, and Dr. Johnson, and was encouraged by Garrick to write two tragedies, Percy (1777) and The Fatal Falsehood (1779), both of which met with some success. About 1780 she withdrew from society, built a cottage at Cowslip Green, 10 miles from Bristol, and began writing moral and religious works. Sacred Dramas (1782) were succeeded by the extensively read Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society (1788). With the aid of her sisters she established Sunday schools in the neighboring districts. A successful tract called Village Politics (1793) led to the famous Cheap Repository Tracts (1795-98), of which 2,000,000 were circulated the first year. Her religious novel Cœlebs in Search of a Wife (1809) ran through eight editions the first year, and was still more popular in the United States. She died at Clifton Sept. 7, 1833. Consult: H. Thompson, Life of Hannah More (London, 1838); E. P. Terhune (Marion Harland, pseud.), Hannah More (New York, 1900); C. M. Yonge, Hannah More, in "Eminent Women Series" . (new ed., Boston, 1912).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 242.