On Liberty
According to Mill in his autobiography, "On Liberty" was first conceived as a short essay in 1854. As the ideas developed, the essay was expanded, rewritten and "sedulously" corrected by Mill and his wife, Harriet Taylor. Mill, after suffering a mental breakdown and eventually meeting and subsequently marrying Harriet, changed many of his beliefs on moral life and women's rights. Mill states that "On Liberty" "was more directly and literally our joint production than anything else which bears my name."