SOURCE: “The Autobiography and the Lady,” in University of Toronto Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 3, April, 1963, pp. 301-6.

In the following essay, Mineka explores the initial reaction to John Stuart Mill's Autobiography and his implications that Harriet Taylor collaborated on several of his essays.

The publication of John Stuart Mill's Autobiography in October 1873, less than six months after his death, created something of a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic. Mill's reputation and influence were still at their height, his Logic and his Political Economy were widely used college textbooks in both England and America, and his advice and opinions on a considerable range of topics were eagerly sought up until the very end of his life. Liberals everywhere had regarded him as perhaps their greatest philosopher and spokesman; most conservatives had been at least respectful. No sooner was he dead, however, than the conservatives' denigration of him became...